


D.S.S. Enterprise cont. Part II

by NaomiPhoenix



Series: Wizards IN SPACE [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Stargate - All Media Types
Genre: Alien Technology, Alternate Universe - Stargate Fusion, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Ancients (Stargate), Atlantis (Stargate Atlantis), Back to life, Betrayal, Cliffhangers, Diagon Alley, Emotional Hurt, F/M, Family Reunions, Furlings, Goa'uld (Stargate), Head Injury, Human Experimentation, Knockturn Alley, Lightsabers, Matter of Life and Death, Non-Consensual Body Modification, Nox - Freeform, Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter), Other, Plague, Selfishness, Teleportation, Tok'ra (Stargate), Vanishing Cabinets (Harry Potter), crawling out of own grave, esama, greed - Freeform, hologram, talk of death, wizards in space
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:49:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 36,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28205625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NaomiPhoenix/pseuds/NaomiPhoenix
Summary: A continuation of the Wizards IN SPACE series by the wonderful and talented ESAMA!Harry has been rescued from Privet Drive and returned to the Requirement. Now he must introduce their unexpected new recruit, Hogwarts Potions Professor Severus Snape, to a world far beyond his imagination.Or is it?As the crew comes to rely more and more on the miracles of alien technology they find on Requirement, Magic will not let them forget that it exists, and is just as, if not more wondrous miracles.
Relationships: Alice Longbottom/Frank Longbottom, Angelina Johnson/Fred Weasley/George Weasley, Arthur Weasley/Molly Weasley
Series: Wizards IN SPACE [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2064486
Comments: 60
Kudos: 122





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [D.S.S. Enterprise](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7776079) by [esama](https://archiveofourown.org/users/esama/pseuds/esama). 



> Just over a year ago, I discovered the Wizards IN SPACE series by esama and became obsessed. So much so I reached out and asked esama if I could write more.
> 
> This is the result.
> 
> (PLEASE DON'T BOTHER ESAMA ABOUT READING IT. ESAMA WILL NOT BE READING MY SEQUEL AS THEY MAY IN FUTURE CONTINUE THE SERIES THEMSELF AND DO NOT WANT TO BE INFLUENCED)
> 
> If you have not read esama's Wizards IN SPACE series first you are missing out on a lot. Please go read it first and don't forget to kudos!

Alicia, Angelina, Katie and Lee were waiting for them, hooded as well, in the darkest of black robes. The cloth seemed to suck in the light like the black holes Hermione had described. The Alley was strangely busy yet oddly quiet. They weren’t the only ones’ moving about with their countenance concealed at this time of night.

“Let’s get inside.” The main portion of the shop was dark but despite his main focus not being on him, Harry didn’t miss Snape taking in as much as he could. The back office was lit up allowing Snape tantalising glimpses. Stars and galaxies twinkled and nebulae glowed on robes and across the ceiling and walls. Harry was pleased to see Luna’s painting again, and the mobile of the solar system which had been a team effort.

“Do you have it, Lee?” Harry asked.

In the low light he saw Lee grinning as he removed his hood and held up a length of cloth.

“Don’t tell me that’s for me.” Snape sounded thoroughly unamused.

“Our security must be considered, Professor,” Harry replied.

“I thought you wanted me here?” he challenged.

“One step at a time,” Harry countered.

“Need help, Professor?” Lee offered wiggling his eyebrows, a very Dumbledore-like twinkle in his eye.

Harry stopped him before it could be taken any further. The last thing Harry needed now was the Professor being run off by childish antics. “I know you three can’t stay out much longer, so thank you for holding down the fort,” Harry said to the older girls.

“You’re welcome, Captain,” they responded eerily in sync. Alicia and Katie made to leave, Angelina hesitated to follow. Her eyes stayed on Severus Snape. She’d been one of the hardest to convince that bringing Professor Snape in on their endeavour was a good thing. In the end both Harry and Ginny had to pull rank over her.

“Please Angelina, I need you to trust the Commander and I on this,” Harry said reassuringly. With a sigh the older girl followed her friends.

“Hey Lee, want to walk with me to the Owl Post? Our C.A. said she wanted it as soon as possible,” Ginny asked yet also gave Lee no choice but to come with her as she pulled him away by his arm.

“Yeah. Right.” Lee tossed Harry the blindfold.

Ginny halted for a moment and handed Harry her PADD+ and an Orb with a wink before dragging Lee out the front door.

Harry dropped them into his own pouch.

“They take orders from you?” Severus asked a little bemused.

“Alicia and Katie are Lieutenants, Lee is a Lieutenant Commander and Ginny and Angelina are Commanders. Ginny is also my second-in-command. As Captain, I outrank them,” Harry explained holding the blindfold out for him to take.

Severus wouldn’t cooperate. He had to ask more questions. “And what is a C.A.?”

“Chief Administrator. Commander Hermione Granger,” Harry answered trying to keep his patience.

They were so close now Harry decided it was safer to keep answering for the moment. Better to keep Snape’s curiosity going forward. Harry worried he might follow Lee and Ginny out the doors if he shrugged off his questions now. He didn’t know for certain if they had a Cloak for the Vanishing Cabinet just yet, so he didn’t want Snape seeing it before it was a certainty that he would be joining them.

The Professor looked stunned. “Why is your First Officer not Miss Granger or Ronald Weasley? Why Miss Weasley?” he wanted to know.

“We gravitated towards different things. Ginny started off as Hermione’s test pilot but after Mr Weasley got hurt, we stopped just having fun and started taking things a lot more seriously. She fell into a more senior command role. Ginny has taken on the roles of First Officer, Chief Security Officer, Chief Intelligence Officer and Spymaster,” Harry answered.

“So this started off as what - a game?” Severus guessed.

“No, it was a way to let off some steam. In a space where we could do what we wanted without having to worry about being watched by that toad of a woman.”

“Which was teaching yourselves Defence against the Dark Arts,” Severus recalled. “But how does that translate to Miss Weasley having that phaser-blaster thing? Or give you all the means to spy on the Order for so long without our becoming aware of it?”

“The particle magnum is electric so it’s actually more of a taser,” said Harry. “Now if you want to know more, you’re going to have to put that thing on, Professor.” Harry offered him the blindfold once more.

“Is it really necessary?” he sighed.

“As necessary as my spinning you around to disorientate you once we’re through that door,” Harry said pointing to the back room. The Professor looked disgusted at the thought. “You can still walk away if you really want to. Just remember if you tell you’ll be wearing it for the world to see.” Harry took a chance and pointed him towards the front door. Then Harry realised there was something else. “Actually, there is an alternative.”

“And what is that?”

“I could call Commander Tank, Ginny that is, back to stun you and drag you there,” Harry told him with a big smile.

“I think not.” Snape suddenly decided to be cooperative again and put on the blindfold.

Harry didn’t let the Professor’s efforts to dissuade him stop him from making adjustments to the blindfold until he was satisfied Snape couldn’t see anything. “I’m afraid you’ll have to hold my hand this time, Professor.”

Severus huffed, “If I must.”

Harry spun him rather more than really necessary once they were in the back room but was nice enough, he thought, to catch him when he stumbled a little. Harry didn’t even walk him into anything. He walked backwards through the Vanishing Cabinet guiding the Professor so he didn’t bump his head and with a few steps across a hallway in Hogwarts, Harry Potter had successfully gotten Severus Snape aboard the D.S.S. Requirement.

And like magic, the vice-like grip which Voldemort had had a tight hold on Harry’s skull since he left the Requirement was gone.

“Is it always this quiet?” the Professor enquired.

“Yes and no. There’s very few of us here at the moment. Most are at home with their families. Colin and Dennis’ parents moved them to the States but they plan to re-join us once they’ve graduated, if not sooner.” Harry guided him still blindfolded towards the Bridge. “I’m sure the twins will make some noise soon,” he added with a chuckle. Wouldn’t Ron and the twins be in for a surprise once they crossed paths. It served them right for not answering their comm stones when important decisions were wanting to be made.

Giving into temptation, Severus Snape reached out with the hand not held by Harry to find something, anything to give him a clue as to where they were they were. Snape’s hand caught hold of the bulkhead separating the Bridge from the hallway as they crossed through it. “That’s metal. Wizards only build with wood and stone. Are we somewhere in Muggle London?”

Harry used some force to pull him away. “Patience.” After a few more steps Harry placed him in front of the Bridge window with the view overlooking Neptune and the ever-evolving D.S.S. Enterprise which with every flash of light the replicator saw an increase in size. This, this would be the first thing Severus Snape saw. “Wait here a moment - and don’t take off the blindfold, I just need to do something quickly.” With all due haste Harry pulled a Cloaked Orb out of his bottomless hip-pouch and got it set up to capture the moment before re-joining Snape by the window. “Okay - now.”

Severus Snape whipped off the blindfold with all the eagerness of a child and staggered away from the window almost immediately upon his eyes regaining their focus. “That’s - that’s - _what_?!” He span around taking in the scope of the Bridge before he whipped back around to the window then finally to Harry. He moved so fast Harry found himself preparing to catch him if he lost his footing. “Is this _real_?!” Severus’ voice rose excitedly.

Tired as he was, Harry laughed brightly, “It’s okay if it doesn’t sink in immediately. Merlin knows it took a while for us to realise it was.”

“It’s _real_?!” Harry caught him around the middle as he went weak at the knees and helped him sit down. Snape trembled bodily, “This is a space station - _spaceship_?”

“This is real. We’re on a spaceship, but that -” Harry pointed to the real Enterprise, “- is a space station.”

“This - this is what was meant by ‘out of this world’!” he exclaimed.

Harry laughed more.

Professor Snape looked and sounded utterly bewildered. “What? HOW?”

“Magic,” chuckled Harry resting his chin on his hands on his shoulder. Harry was surprised the Professor didn’t immediately shrug him off.

“It’s not funny.” He couldn’t take his eyes off the window but somehow he found it in himself to scold Harry.

Like he wasn’t trembling like a newborn kitten under Harry’s hands. 

As he had promised, Harry started to explain things. “After Hermione convinced me to teach Defence, we went looking for a safe place to gather where Umbridge wouldn’t find us. As luck would have it I happened to know someone who told me about this room in the castle called the Come and Go Room, or the Room of Requirement...”

“I’ve never heard of it and I’ve been at Hogwarts for most of my life,” Severus protested vehemently.

“You have to know who to ask,” Harry answered simply. “Anyway, what the room does is conjure up a place to meet your needs - or requirements actually. At first it was just a place for us to safely meet and train away from Umbridge but you know the twins...”

“...yes, I do...”

Harry let an amused sound escape him but didn’t pause, “...they couldn’t help themselves. They had to see what it could do. And they got Lee Jordan in on it. Well, one day I went to prepare the room a little earlier than usual and caught them out. That was the day Lee asked for a spaceship. When we walked in and found Ancient Runes everywhere we didn’t think much of it. Fred and George declared it a fakeship - it was just the Room making something up. But word got out and it became the favourite. We hung out here every chance we got and got to know the place, had some fun and worked out a few things about it. The more we discovered the more we realised this wasn’t just a magical conjuration - it was real.”

“So we’re really in space?” Severus was still wondering.

Harry could have sworn his eyes were a little wet. “We’re currently in stationary orbit over Neptune,” he elaborated.

“That’s Neptune,” he marvelled taking in the scope of the large blue planet before them.

“Yes, it is.”

“And...how - how far is that?”

“From Earth?” Severus nodded. “Four-point-four billion kilometres or two-point-seven-four billion miles - give-or-take,” Harry recalled Lee and Hermione saying.

Yup, his eyes were definitely wet. “Fucking hell.”

Harry fell into peals of laughter and Professor Snape was surprisingly quick to join him. His coming out in short, breathless giggles. It took them a while before they recovered themselves.

“But where does it come from? Muggles are nowhere near being able to do something like this?” Severus asked.

“We haven’t found out yet. All we know for certain is their language is an older version of Ancient Runes. One theory is life has been on Earth for such a very long time that the makers of this ship evolved to be so far in advance of where we are now they left Earth perhaps millions of years ago but maybe kept an eye on their home world and interacted with Wizards at some point. Another theory is Wizards and Aliens had some sort of past interaction where they taught our ancestors their language sometime long enough ago that the when has been lost to history,” Harry replied.

“Either way, this is incredible,” Severus admitted. Outside the Conjurer flashed with great intensity and a particularly large segment was added. “What is that light doing? Is that structure another ship?”

“The light is remolecularising elements we’ve mined from an asteroid and Jupiter which are stored throughout the ship, into a space station. The D.S.S. Enterprise is intended to be a space station, mining platform and fuel depot, leaving this ship, the D.S.S. Requirement free to move about. If all goes to plan that should be by the end of the summer holidays.”

“I - I don’t know where to start with -“ Severus faltered.

“- asking questions?” Harry guessed. The Professor nodded. “That’s okay,” he said reassuringly. “We’ve kind of dropped you in the deep end. Lieutenant Edgecombe’s mother had some idea of what was going on before we brought her on board but still got overwhelmed pretty quickly I heard.”

“There are others?”

“Just Clarissa Edgecombe and you, not including the original Defence Association,” Harry answered. “It’s no secret they’re purging muggleborns, half-bloods and anyone who supports Dumbledore and me from the Ministry. Not only is Ms Edgecombe a muggleborn, she’s an unmarried single mother - very much an undesirable. There was a real and immediate risk of losing her job and we needed someone to man the front counter of the shop.”

“If Miss Edgecombe’s mother is manning the front counter, what do you expect of me?” Severus enquired.

“This started because our future was under attack by the Ministry and our lives at risk of being taken simply because You-Know-Who and his followers think of us as undesirable entities. You’ve got experience with that and you’re motivated to do something about it -“

“I am not a good man, Mr Potter. You know that better than most.” Harry took his left hand and started undoing the buttoned cuff of his shirt. “You don’t want to see that.”

“It’s nothing I haven’t seen before but I think you need to, because if my theory is correct...” Harry pushed the sleeves of Severus’ shirt and robe back to expose his arm. It was very pale with a few small burn scars - and nothing else.

There was no Dark Mark. One could be led to believe his arm had never been touched by it.

“How?” Severus touched his arm like he didn’t believe it was really his.

“For the same reason my headache is gone and I will be able to sleep soundly from now on. Remember, no matter what unit of measurement you pick, the distance still numbers in the billions. To put it simply - his reach, his power, has its limits.”

Outside the window the flashing light silently ceased.

“Perfect timing. The ship-wide Conjurer -“

“Conjurer? What - like a _Replicator_? An actual one?” Harry was as surprised by his genuine enthusiasm.

“Yes, an actual Replicator but we prefer to call it a Conjurer. It’s going to need some time to cool down, which means we can use the little one for the next hour. That is - if you want to join us?” Harry stood up and helped him to stand on his still rather shaky legs.

Harry was surprised the Potions Master accepted his assistance without hesitation. “You are right. I wanted this once before - before Hogwarts,” Severus admitted unexpectedly. “I was a child in the sixties when it was all about the space race. The moon landing happened when I was nine-and-a-half. I remember watching it as it happened and finding out later I was one of half-a-billion across the world who did so. For a time after I considering forsaking Hogwarts altogether -“

“You wanted to become an Astronaut more than a Wizard?” Harry gaped at him. He couldn’t believe Severus Snape was openly confessing this to him.

Severus shrugged. “My father killed that idea as soon as he found out about it. Told me I had no hope of getting out of Cokeworth - that I’d be exactly like him, working in the cotton mills from the day I left school until retirement, if I lived that long.”

“Well, you showed him. I think you’ve been a Professor since I was a baby,” Harry replied. “As for being an Astronaut, if you want to spacewalk later I’ll take you out but first you need a suit,” he offered. Harry very much wanted to go on a spacewalk himself, but had been too busy to. He also wanted to put his upgraded helmet to the test against something other than attacks of gaseous fumes from cleaning products, and certain relations rear ends. Just before they had left for the summer Ginny had worked out two things: how to merge the Spacesuit and Armour helmets together into a single unit that did both tasks, and how to have it always available rather than have it as a separate piece. She’d barely had a moment to Conjure an upgrade for herself and Harry before they left. Ginny’s upgraded helmet retracted into the collar of her armour, looking no more obvious than a piece of jewellery - a golden choker around her neck. Harry’s retracted right back and appeared to be nothing more than lines of gold which disappeared under other pieces of armour.

He stopped dead in his tracks. “Wait - spacewalk? You’ve spacewalked?” Severus asked with utter incredulity.

“I haven’t yet. Commander Tank has though. Space hoverboarded actually. Not knowing up from down is very disorientating but she swears it was the most fun she’d ever had,” Harry admitted.

“She’s been outside this ship?” Snape’s voice actually went up a couple of octaves.

“Yes, Professor. Ginny Weasley is the first of our kind to have gone into actual space. The only one so far,” Harry revealed. “But I don’t think she’d mind sharing,” he laughed.

“What was that even like?!”

“You can ask her when you see her next, but as I understand it: you’re utterly weightless, have no sense of up or down and it’s exhilarating!” Harry answered. “Come on. Or it’ll be eight hours before we can.” He moved them along.

Severus Snape looked a little disappointed by the Conjurer. Harry had to admit it could easily pass for a table or a pedestal, or a floor chandelier as Severus had called it. He soon changed his tune when Harry used it to conjure for him his own Command stone and explained to him their system of credit.

“This is also our main means of communicating with one another. I’ll go over how to open channels and such later. Right now we need it for your spacesuit. It’ll hold a record of your bodily measurements, armour preferences, etc.” Here the real fun began. Now Harry had to explain just what he needed to do to get his spacesuit. “But here’s the thing about the spacesuits. They’re not like the Muggle ones. Our ones, well, they’re more like a bodyglove,” Harry raised a hand to show his red clad palm and then gestured to where the neck of the suit reached his chin.

“How does that work?” he asked.

Harry responded by asking is he knew about how Muggles use gas pressure. When Professor Snape confirmed he did Harry when on to explain how these spacesuits, more-actually environmental suits, used nanoscopic machinery to produce counter pressure instead. "- and so to make sure it fits correctly without hampering the wearers ability to move-“ Harry tried very hard to keep a straight face and be professional about it but the memory of the day they all got their spacesuits...Harry had made it a team building exercise. One to make sure that everyone felt an equal amount of embarrassment at the ridiculousness of the exercise and no one could claim that they’d seen any person naked when they hadn’t been equally so. It took Harry a while to collect himself to actually tell Professor Snape the story.

His reaction was as expected. Oh, if looks could kill Harry would have dropped dead on the spot.

“Oh no, you’ve worked out my wicked plan. This was all just a farce so I could see you naked,” Harry said in an absolutely deadpan voice. Snape’s expression didn’t change. “Like I said, I made it a team building exercise, so it could be so much worse. Believe me, it was. There was a great deal of mortified people who couldn’t meet anyone’s eyes for days after. And it could be worse than me - I made the mistake of putting the twins onto the task of making the spacesuits so they used me as their test subject. You could be stuck with the twins like I was.”

Snape’s glared subsided a little as he considered it. But every moment he considered it was time wasted and their time with the Conjurer was limited. Harry needed to adjust his suit anyway. He’d had another growth spurt in the past few weeks. So Harry took a deep breath and tried to pretend his heart wasn’t trying to drum its way out of his chest at the thought of what he was about to do.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Severus blurted as Harry’s belt joined his robe on the floor.

“Exactly what you think I am. I need to make some adjustments to mine. I’m still growing. This way I get my suit upgraded and you get to see for yourself how this works,” Harry said as coolly as he could.

“But you just said you were mortified -“

“No, I said people were mortified. I never said I was,” Harry denied it very quickly.

Harry released his Command stone from its cradle on his vambrace and placed it on the Conjurer’s control panel. On the top edge of the console a holographic screen came to life displaying lines of data and images. “You have holographic displays?”

“They take a bit of getting used to. I still find it strange to be able to see through what I’m reading. My brain thinks words should only exist on parchment and paper, not floating in the air,” Harry replied. He motioned for Severus to come join him. “While we don’t understand it completely, these numbers have something to do with how much give the fabric of the suit has at certain points.” Harry pointer a finger at one of the lines of symbols and it was highlighted on that screen and the other in the corresponding area on the images it displayed, which would be Harry’s underarm. He shifted the stone upwards diagonally to the right and a sensor beam appeared, startling Snape a little.

Stepping within its range Harry explained he was having the computer run a diagnosis on his suit as he started going through the motions which were different for everyone depending on their flexibility.

Harry wasn’t intending to show off but ever since he’d started training in the armour with the crew, Harry had developed a range of strength and flexibility he hadn’t known he was capable of. With every motion he pushed himself and the suit to their very limits until the computer beeped that he had given it enough information.

Harry became so lost in his movements that for a time he overlooked Snape’s presence. Harry half-expected some sort of critique from him as he returned to his side by the console yet Severus remained silent. Turning hid Command stone from the two o’clock to three o’clock position and the results of the scan appeared next to the previous display.

Several areas were highlighted. “There. That’s one of the issues I noticed. It’s showing I’m taller than when this suit was first conjured. We’re not sure exactly what this unit of measurement is exactly -” the rune didn’t appear in any Lexicon, modern or otherwise they’d been able to get their hands on. “- but this we were able to work out it means the give in the fabric is less than optimal,” Harry explained. “We found that out after Dennis’ growth spurt in the Spring.”

Harry looked to Snape to find he was still looking at him.

“Are you worried about having to copy what I just did?” he asked innocently.

Severus blinked and cleared his throat. “No- ” he cleared his throat. “- no. I was just wondering where you could have learnt any of that. I recognised some for your moves: boxing, kickboxing, gymnastics...” he responded stiffly.

“Boxing from my cousin Dudley, kickboxing from Hermione - some dancing too, gymnastics from Hermione and Luna, and Muggle sports stretches from Dean and Thomas. We still mostly learn magical defence but it’s been good to add to it with the ability to physically fight as well,” Harry told him. “We’ve even developed different classes. For instance, Luna is light, Dean middle ground and I’m heavy.”

“That doesn’t surprise me with the way you were pushing and dragging me about rather heavy-handedly.”

“If at any time you want to challenge me to a physical fight, Professor, just be aware that I’m one of the few who can hold their own against Tank,” smirked Harry though making quips did nothing for his nerves.

Turning away from Snape so he didn’t see him gulping down his nervous feelings Harry pressed a few symbols on the console and twisted his comm stone back to two o’clock.

Halfway back to the shimmering beam of light Harry realised he should take his robe in with him. De-Conjuring it with everything else would add it back to his credits. Until the Requirement could move and the Enterprise became functional, they could not mine to replenish. Both events were weeks into the future, if everything went to plan.

Trying to keep that at the forefront of his mind however did little to lessen Harry apprehension, so Harry funnelled it into motivating his actions rather than letting it frighten him from it. Professor Snape needed to see that this was simply the way things needed to be done, that the strange awkward element of nudity served a greater purpose and the result would be well worth the embarrassment.

It seemed to take less time for the computer to take the necessary readings the second time around. Harry didn’t bother with explaining his actions this time just did the necessary work on the console to have everything he needed and wanted Conjured. His new suit was followed by pieces of his resized armour starting from his feet up until he was completely covered. Harry added a few miniaturised communication stones so he could at any time add to Ginny’s network and a phasing device only discovered after his last chance to use the Conjurer before the summer break started had passed. One quite a bit better than the first one he’d tried out.

Just like that it was over. Well, for Harry that was.

Now it was Professor Snape’s turn if, Harry mused, he could find within himself a little Gryffindor bravery.

“I have rather a lot of things in my pockets. Is there anywhere I can put them instead of having them disintegrated?” Snape handed Harry his belt.

“Not disintegrated, Professor. Demolecularised,” he corrected him. “Disintegration means broken down by damage. Demolecularised means it’s broken down into base molecules.” Snape raised his eyebrows but said nothing. “You could keep them as is, or we could Conjure a box for your items before they are demolecularised,” Harry offered. “I could also scan each article of clothing in and store it on your Command stone for future reference. They could be Conjured back then at any time and with spell resistant materials.” Professor Snape chose the latter two options.

Harry developed a new appreciation for the work their resident fashionistas had put into designing their robes and summer wardrobes. Scanning in each article of clothing was a slow and tedious exercise but he was grateful for the distraction. If only it hadn’t ended. It wasn’t easy, keeping his eyes on the screen, trying to read the lines of runes which appeared across them while Snape moved just within his periphery. Harry did look. He could help it. And it was only fair after all - Snape had looked too.

Severus Snape was surprisingly nice to look at.

By the time the sensor beam finished scanning him enough for the Conjurer to do its work they were down to minutes. Snape was quick then to choose the colour for his spacesuit and armour, black, which Harry couldn’t help but laugh at a little. Severus chose heavy-type armour for himself which made Harry’s task easier. Harry used his own as the basis including a layer of gold to increase its spell-resistance and simply concealing it under a layer of heat-treated and oxidised zirconium to give it the black colouring he wanted.

The ship-wide Conjurer resumed just as the final piece was Conjured.


	2. Chapter Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Severus Snape's presence on the Requirement proves a great boon.

The boy once excited by the moon landing seemed to find his way out of the Professor again once they were outside. "I can't believe I'm sitting on top of a spaceship," said Severus. “When I woke up this morning it never crossed my mind I’d be spending my evening spacewalking to view of Neptune.”

“I’d be very surprised if it had,” Harry chuckled. "Actually when we walked out of the ship we headed straight down. If we go by ships gravity we’re actually sitting upside-down on the bottom of the ship,” Harry teased him a little, which felt nice to do.

"I stand corrected and suddenly I feel very nauseous again." Severus pressed a hand on his stomach.

"Yeah, space does that. No gravity, no ground, no sky..." Harry watched him closely.

His reaction didn’t disappoint. “Stop,” Severus pleaded. “I’m going to bring up Mrs Weasley’s stew otherwise.”

Suddenly all the nausea seemed to belong to Harry. He knew the Professor hadn’t meant anything by it, but still. “Mrs Weasley’s hardly left Mr Weasley’s side since the summer started,” said Harry unhappily. “That stew was Ginny’s work, and so was the bread. Every meal since the beginning of the summer has been made by her. As well as all the effort to keep the Order headquarters clean. She’s been the one managing the household the past few weeks. On her own, I might add. All I could do to help was talk her through some recipes. Mrs Weasley hadn’t even taught her how to cook yet, let along for such a large group of people.”

“I had no idea,” Severus said apologetically.

“The worst thing is that we found the ships medical database a while ago. But a lot of the language in it is proving hard to translate. And it’s enormous. These aliens have come into contact with a lot of other aliens...”

“Do they know anything about human biology?” Severus asked.

“Yes, there is plenty of material on us, and more,” Harry answered. “Whoever these aliens were, they were well travelled. We found maps of at least three other galaxies.”

“Three _and_ the Milky Way?”

“We think so. They called the Milky Way something else though - Skyriver is their name for it.”

“Is that one of the reasons you wanted me on board? Because I have training as a Healer,” Professor Snape turned the conversation back to its previous subject.

Harry looked at him in surprise. “Actually, I didn’t know that. I don’t think any of us did,” he responded. “No. Like I said before, you got the reference...”

“...the shop sign...”

“Yes, and then how you spoke about it at the meeting...”

“You said you were going to tell me how you were able to listen in,” the Professor reminded him.

Harry held up his left hand. “These aren’t decorations,” he said pointing to little bumps around his comm stone. Picking one out of its cradle, he pressed it into Severus’ palm so he could take a closer look. “It’s like the Command and Communication stone, just in miniature with only has one function - it picks up all audible sounds within a certain distance and sends it to my comm stone. I can listen in as it happens or play it back when I get to the ship,” Harry explained. “There’s a few of them around Grimmauld Place.”

“It’s so small.” Severus held it up between finger and thumb to the flashing light of the Conjurer. “And it looks like nothing more than a glass bead.”

“Easy to hide. When Ginny started on the whole espionage thing, we used her comm stone and listened through one of the twins...when Mr Weasley was hurt and they wouldn’t tell us anything...”

He handed the tiny stone back to Harry, or as near enough as he could. It hovered a little over top of Harry’s palm in the vacuum of space. Harry let it hover and moved his arm to align the stone to its cradle before he pressed it back into place.

“Their father was hurt guarding the Hall of Prophecy...”

“We know. We know that now,” Harry stopped him. “We’ll go and retrieve it soon...”

“You’re the only one who can touch it. If anyone not related to a prophecy touches a Prophecy Orb, they’ll be hit by defensive spells.”

Harry was grateful for the information.

“Lucius Malfoy put an Unspeakable, Broderick Bode, under the Imperius Curse in an attempt to get it. Bode was later found wandering the Department of Mysteries thinking he was a teapot. He did recover a bit in St Mungo’s but he was assassinated. Neither Malfoy nor the Dark Lord wanted to run the risk of his remembering and talking. Killed at Christmas.”

“So that’s what that was.” Harry remembered some sort of fuss happening. “Something happened in the Spell Damage ward the morning Mrs Weasley took us to see Mr Weasley.”

“Well, if I’m going to help, we should get back inside so I can take a look at this medical database.”

Although the knowledge contained in the database could be accessed through any console aboard the ship, so far as the ones they had tried to access it from, Harry took the Professor to the database room itself. It was a small room when compared to others. A screen of an oval type shape sat centre of the back wall with terraced towers of clear crystal either side and a large semi-circular console in front. Piles of books and writing paraphernalia were stacked up near the console and against the other walls. Harry set the Orb to record again, to capture and breakthroughs they might make.

“There’s more information here than we’ll ever be able to sort through in our lifetimes,” Harry commented as he brought up the medical data on-screen. “There was an idea to Conjure it all into books but it’s just too much,” he continued. “We’ve had an easier time with working out how we can fuel the ship than understanding this.”

The Professor started responding, “I can read Ancient Runes but there is so much of this that is making no sense. It’s -” Snape moved closer to the screen, brushing his fingers along it as he followed the script across the screen. “I need something to write with,” Severus said suddenly after several minutes. “Something to write on too.”

Harry got him both and a writing box to write against as quickly as his feet could carry him. “What do you see?”

“Fron,” he said simply.

“Fron? Like From but with an ‘n’?” Severus made an affirmative noise. “So it’s in some sort of Earth-based language then?” Harry asked. If it was something translatable that would mean a real chance at using it to help Mr Weasley, Neville's parents and countless others.

“A form of Latin, possibly a precursor. Frons typically translates to front, outside, exterior but in this context it's more likely to mean forehead, temple or brow,” the Professor answered distractedly.

For the second time in a few hours Severus Snape had succeeded in making Harry’s jaw hit the ground. He’d worked it out? Wait, Latin? How did they miss that? All the spells they were taught Latin-based. “You’re fluent in Ancient Runes and Latin?”

“I...was a Spell Creator for a few years. Having a firm understanding of Latin was a necessity,” Severus divulged.

“When? You’ve either been learning at Hogwarts or teaching at Hogwarts,” Harry declared. “You said so yourself.”

“Most of Fifth Year until I graduated,” Snape replied. Harry wanted to ask more but didn’t dare distract him from his translations. This was the lead they had been looking for. Harry excused himself for a few minutes to run to their library to grab texts on the Latin language. It wasn’t quick work, they debated and deliberated over context and were able to identify words and even phrases. “Kozar. That looks like it might be referring to a lower extremity: perhaps crus - the foot or leg.” As time passed they filled the parchment with a glossary of words. So much time passed in fact that the ship-wide Conjurer would soon be due for another cool-down. “Cerebrus. The Latin equivalent would be cerebrum...”

“Wait, isn’t that the brain?” Harry said eagerly.

“Yes it is. Why do you ask?” Severus enquired.

“Neville’s parents. They...”

The Professor’s eyes widened. “Of course.” He stepped around the console to join him. “Now we know what their word for it is, is there any way to look for something specifically?”

“It can be done by manually typing it in. This one brings up what we call the ‘search’ function.” Harry ran a finger over a small grouping of runes on the console and a rectangular box appeared on the screen. There was another rectangle within it with a blinking vertical line. “This is the keyboard. Apparently it’s very similar to a Qwerty keyboard, like Muggles have for their computers. Press the middle rightmost button when you’ve finished typing in your inquiry.”

The results of the first search, just the word ‘Cerebrus’, returned with results in the trillions. “It’ll take forever to go through all this,” Severus frowned. “Is there any way to refine the search so we can look for whether they have some means of repairing it?”

“These symbols placed before and after each word, and this one placed between helps to refine the search parameters.” Harry took command of the keyboard and added ‘repair’ in Ancient Runes after ‘Cerebrus’. The results were fewer but still a ridiculous amount. After looking through a few paragraphs of the first few results, it seemed many of them were about experiments on the human brain. One in particular talked about an advanced human or hok’taur, a word not in any language Snape said he could identify. Harry could, but chose to keep his silence. Best no one worried themselves over the brain snakes he’d discovered. By all reports they had been resoundingly defeated. It also reminded him he was due to have another of the edible, and vaguely sweet and metallic-tasting grey cubes which allowed him to use the red gem on the palm of his left hand.

After slipping a cube casually into his mouth Harry was about to suggest they to try something else when the Professor spoke, “That’s fascinating.”

“What is it?”

“It’s about brain repair and memory,” Severus replied.

Harry’s heart leap in his chest. Could they have just found a way to meet one of their goals and healing Frank and Alice Longbottom? “What does it say?”

Professor Snape switched to a fresh parchment to translate it. As Harry watched him his expression gave away nothing. His cube had long since melted in his mouth before Severus replied. "Do you want the good news first, or the bad news?"

“We can’t help them?” Harry asked in a rush, his heart already beginning to break for Neville.

“We can, but there are limits,” Snape replied.

“Tell me.”

“Memories once lost cannot be recovered. Memory which are cut off by damaged tissue can usually be recovered. Brain matter can be repaired completely and individuals can rehabilitated to the point of being fully and independently functional given time and good management of their recovery,” he answered as concisely as possible.

“So - the result of healing the Longbottom’s would depend on what kind of damage was done?” How something could sound so hopeful yet painful at the same time, Harry did not know. He didn’t think it could be possible but here it was.

Now they knew it was possible they just needed to find the means to do it. Harry decided to use a different search method to find it. He asked a question rather than just looking for keywords. The question ‘How to repair Human Cerebrus’ yielded far better, in this case, fewer results.

“It has the ability to answer questions?” Severus asked, sounding astonished.

“Handy, isn’t it?” Harry smiled as he started looking through the results.

For the most part many devices capable of healing any type of damage to a person, not just their brains, were large devices meant to exist in hospitals and hospital wings. The peoples who used the Latin-precursor appeared to have one. A quick side-search showed there was something of a hospital bay on the ship, one of the room they hadn’t been about to work out the purpose of and luckily not one of the rooms they’d made into storage. But getting Mr Weasley to the ship was an impossible task and moving Neville’s parents wouldn’t be any easier.

Harry continued to dig deeper. The brain snakes appeared to have created their own. It had the look of the sarcophagi he had seen while eldest Weasley brother Bill had been showing them pictures he had taken around tombs in Egypt. A bold-text warned of dire consequences from the overuse of that particular one. They needed something that was mobile, that could be carried, even concealed. Harry was already motioning for the next screen of text to appear when something caught his eye and he quickly returned.

The brain snakes appeared to have created some sort of handheld healing device. “There. That’s what we’re looking for.” Weary of using this species healing technology after reading the warning regarding the larger device Harry refined the search further. To his surprise the brain snakes seemed to be the only ones who had invented such a thing that was made to repair human biology.

“Strange that that one is the only one of its kind,” Severus commented.

“Yeah. The others seem not to be too worried about the need to bring healing to the injured.” The text offered no clue as to why and frankly Harry found it disturbing. Surely sometimes it wasn’t possible to get someone to medical care? Unless they had some inconceivable way to move people about quickly.

Harry pushed those thoughts aside. Grabbing his comm stone he put the information regarding the handheld healing device into it. “Right. The next cool-down starts in a few minutes. I’ll Conjure one.”

“We’re going to attempt this immediately,” Severus asked sounding surprised.

“As soon as I let Neville and our resident Weasley’s know.”

Ginny was easy enough to awaken but all three of her brothers were dead to the world. Even Ginny could get nothing more than sleepy mumbles and grumbles from her brothers. So the decision came down to being hers alone.

Well, not entirely. “Are you serious?” It took some time for Neville to slip away from breakfasting with his Grandmother, Great-Uncle Algie and Great-Aunt Enid much to their displeasure. He was only able to escape them using his Cloak. “How did we miss Latin?”

“Because, Mr Longbottom, you were all looking to only translate Ancient Runes to English. From what I saw of notes made, no one considered anything else. If it could not be translated from Ancient Runes to English it was dismissed as untranslatable. No one considered anything more than the immediately obvious,” Severus Snape answered in full Professor mode.

“That - actually makes a lot of sense,” Neville stuttered only a very little.

Harry thought Severus looked genuinely impressed by Neville's actually forming a response. "There’s more, Neville. The Professor’s been able to identify a tonne of medical terms and words for body parts. He worked out their word for the brain.” Neville gasped. “There’s a few different kinds of medical machines for healing but with brain injuries it’s tricky. The good news is that brains can be healed...”

“What’s the bad news?” Neville asked cautiously.

“Any memories lost stay lost.” Harry could swear he heard Neville slump. “But there’s more good news. After people’s brains are repaired they can be taught to function again. Like babies and small children learn, only quicker. And anything still there which might have just been cut off by the damage could be retrievable too,” he added. Harry went on to explain the results of their research with only a few interjections from Neville.

“So you Conjured this device?”

“Yes. I thought it’d be a better idea to bring it to them than vice-versa. But it’s your call. We can try to put together a plan to get them onto the ship...”

“No, you’re right. My parents shouldn’t be moved any more than Ginny’s dad can be. They’re already in the best place for treatment if something goes wrong,” Neville answered. “It’s not like we can Conjure something into space to test it on.”

“What is he talking about?” Professor Snape interrupted.

“We tested a nuclear...”

“You’ve been playing around with nuclear power?!” Severus sputtered.

“Remember when I said none of this is a game?” Ginny answered as she fixed the Professor with a look which made her look like her mother. “When we found the ship we had to use magic to extend what little was left of its fuel. Then we moved it to a nearby asteroid which had water. From there we fuelled the ship on liquid oxygen-liquid hydrogen...”

“Rocket fuel?”

“Yes, that was until we could get to Jupiter where we collected helium-3 and deuterium for a nuclear fusion reactor. That is what is currently powering the ship,” Harry told him before getting them back on track. “So you’re okay with me trying this, Neville? I can’t promise it’ll work...”

“It’s okay, Harry. Even if it doesn’t, I appreciate the thought,” Neville replied. “And thank-thank you too, Professor.”

Severus Snape, still clearly processing the nuclear power revelation automatically muttered that he was welcome.

“I’ll let you know as soon as I know something. Captain out.”

“Bye.”

“I’ll take your to see the engine room later,” Harry promised.

“I can’t help but think I’m being bribed,” mused Severus.

“If it works,” Ginny shrugged with a small smile. “Ready to put your suit to a stealth test?”

Severus raised an eyebrow. “You’ve been sneaking around Hogwarts in these?”

Ginny held up a finger. “Just the once - after Umbridge stole my original armour some of the others broke into her office to get it back.”

“I saw you when we collected Potter, Miss Weasley. Or more correctly, I saw you disappear perfectly, seemingly like you were never there until you revealed yourself at the Dursley’s front gate. You mean to tell me none of you were ever tempted?” Severus contended.

“By that time Umbridge had driven many of us to just stay here on the ship. There was no need to sneak around,” Ginny responded. Except occasionally for food, but she left that unsaid.

“This,” Harry pointing to the triangular piece on his chest, “is your Cloak. It has a simple press on/press off function. The suit and armour both absorb the sound of any movement we make, I don’t know if you noticed that -” the Professor admitted he hadn’t “- And our helmets have the ability to see through the Cloaks, so we won’t lose sight of each other. Also we will be able to talk normally.” They put him through a couple of practice runs, in truth a few rounds of hide and seek, to make certain he had a handle of the functions they were using before moving on.

“You really did connect to the ship through a room in the castle,” Severus said as he stood in the doorway of the ship looking out into the hallway.

Harry pointed to the wall opposite to the Room’s entrance. “And in a few more steps we’ll be back in the shop.”

Professor Snape did a double take when he saw what was embedded into the wall. “Is that a Vanishing Cabinet?”

“It is. Linked to another one in the shop,” Ginny answered.

“How did you even manage to find two?”

“One here at Hogwarts thanks to the Room of Requirement and the other was in Borgin and Burkes. It was actually Clarissa Edgecombe who told us about it. Apparently it was a bit of an open secret in the Ministry,” said Ginny.

“It’s an open secret - full stop. There are certain parties wanting it to stay right where it is in case they have a use for it. They’re not going to be happy when to learn it was sold,” Severus commented as a warning.

Certain parties are going to be unhappy about a great many things. “Let’s get going.”

Snape followed them through rather more quickly than Harry thought he would.

Hermione was sitting at the desk going through papers and Lee could be heard talking to someone on the other side of the door. “Good morning, Hermione.”

The Witch in question didn’t look up from her paperwork or respond.

“No need to be clever, Miss Weasley.” Ginny shrugged it off with a smile. “I’m sure Miss Granger will notice the doors opening...”

“One moment.” Harry was already looking for what he needed in his pouch. What he retrieved was a small boxy looking device which he placed on his upper arm. “This will make it so we don’t have to open any doors. We’ll just pass through them.”

“Wait? Are you talking about being out of phase?” Professor Snape exclaimed.

Harry wiggled his fingers at him like he’d done before. Ginny too his other hand without Harry even having to offer it.

Hands joined Harry didn’t take them through the doors into Diagon Alley but rather through the back wall into a hidden alley - Border Alley, as the twins had dubbed it - which separated the Wizarding World from Muggle. They stepped through the Granger’s new dental office, which was full of builders getting it ready and onto the busy Muggle street outside before bringing them back into phase. “I’d rather not tempt fate and Apparate while out of phase,” he commented.

Moving through the corridors of St Mungo’s as only a little bit easier than avoiding the Muggles on the street. “Dad’s room is this way,” said Ginny.

The Professor caught their arms before they got a step away. “Are you sure going to your father first is wise, Miss Weasley?”

Ginny frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Your father is on the first floor, the Longbottom’s are on the fourth. Should something go wrong, as in our being discovered, I think starting from furthest away and where the least constant supervision would be wisest.”

Damn if he wasn’t right. There were anti-Apparation wards throughout the hospital. And this place took its lock-downs seriously, Harry and Ginny both knew that from experience Christmas last. Sure, both were high-priority wards but they knew that Neville’s grandmother wasn’t coming in today. On the other hand, Ginny’s mother could very well be by her father’s bedside at this very moment. Harry shared a look with his 2IC and she gave a nod. “Alright. Janus Thickey Ward first it is.”

Alice Longbottom was being given a bed bath behind a curtain when they arrived. Frank Longbottom looked to have been attended to recently as he was freshly clothed and sat gazing blindly out a window overlooking Muggle London.

“I’ll keep a watch out,” Severus offered.

Nodding Harry approached Frank with some hesitation. What if something went wrong? He’d never forgive himself. And these beings who created this technology - the reports he had read had nothing nice to say about them. Harry knew what the gem on his palm could do.

It struck Harry suddenly that he should take it off least he activate it too while using the handheld healing device. Taking another one of the grey cubes for good measure Harry moved to stand in front of Frank while he swallowed down his concerns.

Activating the healing device proved to be as easy as using the other device. Harry just had to think and focus - but the moment he did Harry was overwhelmed with an influx of information.

“What is it?” Ginny asked rushing to his side.

“So much stuff in my head, all of a sudden. I wasn’t ready for it,” gasped Harry as he pressed the palm of his free hand against his temple. He was relieved to see Frank was unaffected. Harry could sense he hadn’t hurt him.

“Perhaps you should let me try,” Severus offered. “I have some experience with mind magics.”

Harry filed that piece of information away for later and he waved him off. “I’m the only one who can use this species technology. I have an element in my blood that activates it.”

“How is it only you and no one else?” Severus frowned.

“I ingest the element needed to use their technology -”

“You ingest - do you have any idea how dangerous it is to -” he started.

Harry cut him off. “I did my research, Professor. It’s safe. It simply increases the level of electrical activity in my body. So far the only affects I’ve noticed is I heal faster, my magic is stronger and I’m pretty sure my brain works faster too.”

“You think it’s made you smarter?” Severus was incredulous.

Harry gritted his teeth in response to the insinuation. “I know I can better understand what I’m reading and I have better recall too.” Snape looked unconvinced. “Please Professor, I can do this, I just need time,” he said.

Harry found he could only brace herself so much against the onslaught of information the device threw at him. If he hadn’t just spent hours looking at medical texts he might not have known what he was looking at. The device somehow showed him within his own mind, the functionality of the man before him as well as the strengths and weaknesses of his body. Harry could hear Frank’s heart had a steady rhythm, the static discharge of his nervous system firing off little sparks of electricity. Together they made a cacophony of sound that was hard to focus through.

Frank Longbottom’s musculature was weakened from years of little physical activity. His stomach shrunken in size due to the more liquid, less solid diet he’d been on. The rest of him did not signal anything was wrong until Harry reached his head.

It was as though there was a stone wall around it of solid build, like the vitrified stone of Hogwarts, meant to protect what was hidden behind it.

Or at least there had been. As Harry took a closer look the vitrified stone. Unlike the castle, this wall had not been maintained. It had not needed to be within the wards of St Mungo’s where Frank Longbottom had been for many years under the compassionate care of Healers and Nurses. But the wall is so solid, even a lifetime of care could not bring it down.

So how to bring it down?

There was an old stone wall near a stream on the property surrounding the Burrow. It had been there for a long time, but hadn’t served any purpose for such an age no one had concerned themselves with its upkeep in perhaps centuries. Harry remembered Hermione’s theory that the magic had waned and water had seeped into the cracks. In its liquid and solid states it has worked its way in and brought it down.

So Harry envisioned himself as water, falling into the cracks, freezing and expanding, collecting more droplets and freezing to expand over and over again all the while projecting the thought warm and safe until one of the stones jumped and bounced at the top of the wall before falling. Though it made no noise and no vibrations it seemed somehow to set off an avalanche in its wake.

Harry felt and heard Frank’s heart skip a beat and his lungs fill with a heavy breath of oxygen. His mind, now no longer closed off hummed softly and the healing device told him there was nothing there which needed to be fixed. Frank Longbottom was simply in a deep REM sleep.

Harry returned to reality with a gasp.

“Potter?” “Captain?”

“It’s done,” said Harry stepping back. He felt shaky all over.

“You’re joking?” The Professor strode over to check Frank over for himself.

“Don’t.” Harry reach out to stop him. “He’s entered a deep sleep. Let him rest.”

“How can you be certain?” said Severus gesturing to the seemingly unconscious man.

“This told me.” Harry held up the healing device. “He’s going to need time to build up his strength and he shouldn’t eat any big meals until his stomach adjusts but that’s about it.”

Severus looked at Harry in utter confusion. “What about the brain damage?”

“There wasn’t any -” Harry began.

“How can that be?” Severus asked perplexed.

“You said you have experience with mind magic -” The Professor nodded. “Can a person protect their brain by imagining a wall around it?”

“Yes -?” he replied hesitantly.

“Can a person build a wall - a really big one made of stone like Hogwarts - around their mind?” Harry repeated with more detail.

Ginny gasped.

“With enough skill and imagination a person can do a lot of things,” Severus replied. “Are you saying that’s what Frank Longbottom did?”

Harry nodded before moving around him to tend to Alice. He didn’t know how long it had been but it was long enough that Alice too was now dressed and sat by her own window under the light of the soothing morning sun.

Alice, in mind and body, was much the same. The cracks just a bit deeper and, at least from Harry’s perspective, quicker to give. Now he understood the pride Neville’s grandmother always expressed when speaking of her son and daughter-in-law and why she had such high hopes for Neville. What had been diagnosed as irreparable brain damage had been in fact an incredible feat of magic from the pair.

Harry hoped still that Augusta Longbottom would eventually appreciate Neville for himself one day. In time, once they were out in the galaxy exploring Neville would undoubtedly have many Herbological discoveries to his name. He deserved to have his grandmothers respect before then.

Harry didn't wait around for the healed Longbottom's to be discovered. He made a beeline for the 'Dangerous' Dai Llewellyn Ward with a contemplative Potions Professor and Ginny, nearly vibrating with anxiety, following in his wake. It was busier now than when they'd first arrived and harder to move around without the risk of bumping into someone and giving their invisible presence away. A few times Harry contemplated using the phase device to make their walk go more smoothly. His heart was absolutely racing, his body covered in a cold sweat the suit couldn’t seem to wick away fast enough and if he stopped moving for even a moment he started shaking. They were so close to Mr Weasley’s hospital bed, yet seemed so far away until they were suddenly there.

Mrs Weasley was asleep on a cot by her husband’s bedside. Ginny commented that she was still in the same clothes as Ginny had seen her wearing when she left more than a day ago.

Without communicating Professor Snape placed the bezoar that would be needed to deal with the poison running through Arthur Weasley’s veins once his wounds were healed, into the stasis-still man’s mouth before drawing his wand. If Molly Weasley woke up while Harry was healing the Weasley family patriarch, Ginny warned them she’d have to be stunned or she’d likely bring the whole hospital down on this room.

Healing Mr Weasley was the polar opposite to healing the Longbottom’s. Arthur Weasley’s injuries were very real and numerous. You-Know-Who’s foul familiar Nagini had been unforgiving in her attack. He had puncture wounds on his face and neck, then arms and legs from when he tried to protect himself. Harry could almost smell the taint of Nagini’s venom and he could see how it had curdled Mr Weasley’s blood. The clots of blood had slowed his bleeding out but had he not been put under a stasis spell when they brought him in, he might have suffocated before he’d bled out.

Harry had to induce the clots to break up and then flow out of his wounds before he could heal them, while at the same time prompting new blood cells to grow. He smelt more than noticed when the stasis spell went down. The putrid smell of venom-curdled blood filled the air inducing nausea but Harry did not falter. One after the other, each wound healed as though it had never been there. The healing left no scars.

Mrs Weasley stayed blessedly asleep and unaware until the moment Harry was done. Despite the dizziness which overwhelmed Harry the moment he no longer needed to use the healing device on Ginny’s father, he suspected her mother had somehow sense the moment her beloved husband returned to consciousness.

However watching Ginny’s parents reunion was not to be. Harry’s last thought before he drifted into unconsciousness was he was glad Ginny could move as quickly as a Seeker who spotted the golden snitch. There was no one else who could use the healing device if he had hit his head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unbeta'd. All mistakes are my own.


	3. Chapter Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry awakens back on the ship after mission success, but all is not well. As the crew soon discover they have been betrayed - by their own.

Harry returned to consciousness with the distinct feeling he had at some point had steam coming out of his ears, so seeing an empty bottle of Pepper-Up Potion by a full tray of food at his bedside was unsurprising.

What did surprise him was finding himself tucked into a bunk abroad the Requirement. Harry had no memory of how he had come to be there.

"Harry?" a familiar voice said from nearby.

On the bunk next to the one he'd been put on, Ginny Weasley looked a great deal better than she had. The dark patches under her eyes, which had been nearly as bad as Harry’s own, were greatly faded but her eyes still looked tired.

"Don't move too fast. Snape said you exhausted yourself and might be dizzy for a while," said Ginny when he tried to sit up. The shaking which Harry had been experiencing since he healed Frank Longbottom had gotten worse. When he was finally able to sit up with Ginny's help his legs trembled uncontrollably when he tried to set his feet on the floor.

"Did it work?" croaked Harry after several assisted mouthfuls of water.

"Yeah, it did. An owl came to the shop about an hour after Snape and I got back with you, an event they missed by the way. They still don’t know you, me and Snape are on board. Not the least because my brothers were at St Mungo’s almost all day -" She gestured to where they were sleeping across the long room they’d made the sleeping quarters up nearest the doors. At the far end of the long room, Harry and Ginny could be easily missed.

"I've been out all day?"

Ginny nodded.

 _Was this the price of using that species technology_? thought Harry. A complete and utter drain on the users energy. Had it harmed his mind too like the other larger device tended to do? His head certainly felt like it was reeling in-between the drumming of his heartbeat in his ears.

Ginny seemed to suspect at least part of what he was thinking. "Snape and Hermione put you through the ships medical scanner. It took a bit to understand it but it didn’t diagnosed you with anything more than extreme exhaustion. They think the thing you used to heal them uses the bodies own energy to power itself. Hermione took it to study,” she added. "Do you think you can eat?" Harry's stomach grumbled very loudly in favour of eating but when he tried to reach for the tray he was could do little more than knock the cover askew a bit before the heavy weight of his arm overwhelmed him. "Here. I'll help. I was still so tired when I woke up I poured half my pumpkin juice down my front," Ginny said lightly. "Thank goodness the suit is liquid-proof. The beds not so much." Harry snorted and smiled. It was good to see Ginny in good humour. "Ms Edgecombe cooked. You’ve got a hearty chicken soup, some toast and an unspilt pumpkin juice."

"Soup, please. Too tired to chew,” Harry yawned.

“I know the feeling,” said Ginny. “Want any fancy flying?” she smirked and wiggled her brows.

Harry snorted into the bed post holding up his head.

“Do I take that as a yes?” she laughed.

Weakly, Harry shook his head but stayed smiling a little even after the first spoonful had been delivered, fancy-flying free. This was nice. Embarrassing, very much so but the embarrassment was moderated by the fact that it was Ginny.

“The healing device doesn’t look like the technology of the ship builders,” Ginny said conversationally when he had finished the bowl.

"Brain snakes," he told Ginny. "That's what I call them." Harry was starting to feel sleepy again with his stomach full but at the same time he felt a little more lively.

"Brain snakes?"

"They - they rip a hole in the back of their victims neck, wrap themselves around the spine before taking over.” Ginny’s eyes bugged a little. “Good news - they were defeated.”

"That's - good. Hate to run into those guys. Snakes are bad enough on Earth," said Ginny. "I mean, we do have some nice ones but -"

"They did. Some would only join with someone who wanted to. Got some tech I want to try," Harry said.

"Like what?" asked Ginny.

"Crystals that grow into secret hideouts," replied Harry, yawning. “Oh, and a lie detector. A false memory checker. Might help us to find those under the Imperius Curse.”

“Wow - I noticed you really threw yourself into life aboard the ship after what Umbridge did to me - but that’s incredible,” said Ginny in awe.

Harry gave a little shrug, his head nearly losing its helpmate. Ginny helped him right himself. “I just went looking. Everyone else was busy with other stuff.”

“What else did you find?” Ginny leaned forward eagerly awaiting his answer.

Harry smiled. “I found the thing to walk through walls. But I’m not the only one who found things,” Harry gaped at her. “Where is your magnum?” Harry realised the weapon wasn’t in its holster.

“Snape, Lee and Hermione all keep eyeing it, so I put it under your pillow for safekeeping. Hermione wanted to take it to study but I said absolutely not.” Ginny pulled it out carefully from behind him. “Snape practically leap on her for asking and said something about seeing what it could do and it shouldn’t be handled by anyone who doesn’t know how to. He doesn’t fancy the fact that it could blast a hole in the ship or someone if misused. He saw me -” another yawn interrupted. “- take down your bedroom door with it.”

“I still can’t believe you did that. I thought it was some kind of spell! It sounded like a mini cannon going off!” Harry said a little too loudly.

Across the room Ron muttered something about his favourite Quidditch team. Ginny’s giggle was interrupted by a yawn from Harry which felt like it would tear his mouth wider before it stopped.

“Back to bed with you, Captain.” Harry found himself too tired to argue.

There was a distinct lack of snoring coming from the other end of the room when Harry awoke again. It took him a moment to realise that a sound had been what had woken him up. Harry still felt awful but he did have an easier time moving. He twisted his head back to see Ginny setting a tray on a table at the head of his bunk. His neck only protested a little.

“Morning,” Ginny said. “Ms Edgecombe cooked again. I managed to save a fair bit from my brothers. You've got honeyed porridge, pancakes with real maple syrup and a couple pieces of toast with a really yummy chocolate spread. They didn’t see me take it but they knew someone had. I heard them complaining like you would not believe."

No wonder they'd protested. It sounded all so yummy. “Sounds good,” Harry said not quite as croaky as before.

“Need any help?” Ginny offered. He was so tempted to say yes but shook his head instead. Thankfully the action didn’t make him dizzy, nor did sitting up. Ginny placed the tray stand in front of him. Harry recognised it from the hospital wing.

It must have been a while since the soup because his stomach was grumbling loudly again and he tucked into the meal with the same ferocity Ron did whenever he was in the presence of food. “Where are your brothers?”

“They went to see dad again...”

“What did they say to Snape being on board?”

“They haven’t noticed yet - still. Hermione actually asked if they’d seen me this morning and they said I was still at Headquarters. Snape and I were literally in the other room. We decided to still not to say anything,” snickered Ginny.

“I hope I'm there when they find out,” he chuckled. “How have they covered for you not visiting your father?” Harry asked.

“Umm, actually I don’t know...”

Harry put down his bowl heavily, all his good humour gone. In his gut he knew what the result of the following conversation would be. It made him sick. Ginny had been forgotten about, again. Harry had seen it too many times while living under the same roof as the Weasley family. “Did they say anything about your mother sending a letter to Grimmauld Place?”

His voice much have had a tone to it because Ginny winced.

“I checked the feeds. Nothings been sent but never mind. I’ve been forgotten before. I’m used to it. Mum might have really wanted a daughter in theory but in practice she’s great at forgetting me time and time again in favour of her many sons, and her husband.”

"I'm sorry..." Harry started.

"Don't be, it’s hardly your fault. Probably better this way. They don't have to lie to her about where I am and it'll be a while before she realises I'm not where she left me," said Ginny. "She'll kick up a fuss once she realises, might even get the whole Order on finding me. There'll be trouble..."

They'll come to the shop looking for her. How would they deal with that?

"Same thing will happen when they work out I'm not at the Dursley's," Harry reminded her.

Ginny was right, he realised. Even if she returned to Grimmauld Place now before her mother or anyone else noticed she was gone, there was still Harry. No one on the crew would accept him returning to Privet Drive just to keep the Order of the Phoenix from the shop door.

Speaking of the crew, Harry had yet to ask about their newest member. "How is Professor Snape settling in?"

“Like a kid who got the keys to Honeydukes,” Ginny’s mood lightened. “I think Hermione and Lee have been enjoying the role reversal.”

“I bet they have,” mused Harry. “Do you think he’ll stay?”

“I don’t know,” Ginny admitted.

“I think he will. You didn’t see him when he first looked out the window as saw Neptune, Enterprise and all the stars,” said Harry. “He belongs out here, amongst the stars.”

“Harry! Great to see you awake!” Lee appeared suddenly followed closely by Hermione and Severus Snape.

Hermione was riding along in something which looked like- “We made a hoverchair!” she announced jumping out of it. “We thought if you wanted to get about a bit but were still shaky, it’d be a good idea.”

The chair was very comfortable and wide enough that Harry could be seated with the tray table. Coincidently, the method for moving it about was the same as the Orb controller and Dudley gaming systems, so manoeuvring it came naturally to Harry.

“What happened to your other project?” Ginny asked after Harry had tried to out.

“Oh, it’s still happening. We will have lightsabers,” proclaimed Lee. “Speaking of which -” he turned to Harry, “- word through the comms says a certain Commander secretly has an actual Blaster..." Lee gave Harry the same wide-eyed look the twins often used to try and get their way. Hermione too.

“What do you expect to do? I’m not ordering Tank to show it to anyone while we’re on the ship.” Harry didn’t fall for it.

“So - do you feel well enough to get off the ship for a little while?” Lee tried. His shoulders sank and his face fell when Harry incidentally answered with a yawn.

“Wow! That healing device really drained you,” declared Hermione. “Don’t worry. We added that to the list. We’re going to make one that’s safer, with its own battery rather than draining the user,” she continued. “Honestly, whoever made it really couldn’t have cared to use it much.”

“I can show you what I’ve found on them if you’d like,” Harry offered.” There’s plenty of stuff about aliens, even the ship builders, if you know where to look.”

“Yes, please!” Hermione and Lee said in unison.

“How did you even find this, Harry? This is amazing!” Pages, as they had been dubbed, appeared behind the console in the database room in a two circles. Each page was the front page of a text on something related to a different alien race.

“I was looking for technology we could use. Counters to magic and other things,” said Harry. “Everyone had their own projects, so I went looking for my own.”

While everyone was gawking at the screens, Harry took out the Orb controller that Ginny had yet to ask for him to return, only to realise it was still on him and recording from the time he’d brought their newest crew member to see the database. There was likely many hours of footage of just Harry sleeping on it. Nobody noticed it though. Not even Ginny who knew about their existence. They were too involved in the page about the magnum.

“That was made by a group called either Journeyers or Travellers. They’re the inventors of the particle magnum - my not-a-gun,” Ginny explained.

Harry pointed to the next page. “That’s the brain snakes. I can’t translate their name -” he could but he didn’t want to. What kind of arrogant beings called themselves by their own word for God. The less they concerned themselves with those creatures, the better, thought Harry. Thankfully there was plenty to keep them occupied elsewhere. “- the healing device is their technology -”

“Okay. They are even more terrifying than you made them sound,” said Ginny leaning back against the console slowly. She pushed away very quickly when something beeped under her palm.

“Greetings.” Lee screamed the loudest.

The pages disappeared and in their place appear a small figure. It had a blue aura, was semi-opaque and - “That’s a Roswell Grey!” cried Hermione.

“Alien ghost?” Lee asked after he’d recovered a little.

“Did it just say ‘Greetings’?” Severus said quietly.

“I am a representation of Thor, Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet.”

“You are speaking English! Representation? Are you a hologram? Someone who exists, or existed?” Severus asked.

“How do you know how to speak English?” added Hermione.

“This ships holographic capabilities includes the ability to interface with a holographic representation of any Asgard who volunteered their knowledge for prosperity. I -“ The hologram paused, tilted its head to the side which seemed to be its way of showing confusion and was silent and still for a moment. “This is not the _Odyssey_.” The hologram appeared to look them over for a second. “You are not members of Stargate Command,” it declared in an accusatory tone and it didn’t stop there. “The stars are not in their correct position for the time period from which this ship originated. Calculating their position we are stationary over the planet known as Neptune. The date is approximately late-July in the Earth year 1996 -”

“27 July 1996,” said Severus.

“You can tell that by the stars?” asked Hermione.

“Yes. But this is not as it should be. The Earth date should approximately be mid-March 2007 -“ Thor paused again.

“When he pauses, do you think he’s accessing the database, Hermione?” Harry whispered.

Hermione nodded rapidly, her eyes sparkling.

“An English-speaking interpreter. This could make things easier,” suggested Severus. If Hermione’s eyes could sparkle even more, they would have.

“Loki.” The hologram spoke the name in a tone that sounded both scolding and so very-done.

“Wait? Thor and Loki? From Norse mythology?” asked Hermione.

“We have interacted with your ancestors in the past. They created stories to explain what they could not understand.”

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic - Arthur C. Clarke,” Severus quoted.

“But some of those stories are pretty crazy. No offence Thor, but how much of it is true?” asked Hermione.

“Humans possess great imagination.” Thor sounded amused.

Hermione opened her mouth to say more but Thor continued. “I appear to have discovered what has occurred. Due to the direness of our situation, Loki was not properly supervised and was able to secretly endeavour to create his own legacy project. How he was able to do this I do not know but it appears he intended this ship to travel to himself in the past so he might have more time to attempt to solve the issue of our genetic degradation. It appears the ship arrived in the Earth year 1994 rather than 1984,” Thor elaborated. “I have attempted to make contact with my people and others of sufficient advancement to understand what has happened.” Harry’s heart skipped a beat. Would they soon meet other aliens? “I am receiving no response.” Just like that his hopes dimmed. “Scanning indicates there are no Stargates currently on Earth in the locations they should be. I can locate only one. This should not be the case. There should be two. I do however sense the presence of other Ancient technology.” A second hologram appeared. It looked like a large city, its base shaped like a star or moreso like a snowflake. “This is Atlantis -“

“Oh Merlin! It really existed!” gasped Lee.

“It should not be in its current location, but I am certain I am reading the city ship’s identification code correctly. It is most certainly located on Earth. This should not be,” said Thor.

“What do you mean?” asked Severus.

“Atlantis left Earth several million years ago for the Pegasus galaxy due to a plague in this galaxy which threatened all life. My scans are finding evidence that some divergence took place at that time. Everything appears to not have occurred as I am familiar with.”

“There was a plague which wiped out all life in this galaxy millions of years ago?”

“There was once an alliance of four races. The Asgard, the Nox, the Furlings and the Ancients. The Nox and Furlings were native to your galaxy. My people come from the Ida Galaxy but built colonies here. The origin of the Ancients, otherwise known as Anquietas, the Ancestors, Lanteans or Alterans, is unknown to the Asgard. Millions of years ago a plague swept through this galaxy. Our colonies here sacrificed themselves so our people in our home galaxy would remain safe. The Furlings worked diligently until the last to find a cure but were unable so. The Nox homeworld was unaffected as their infected refused to return home until a cure was found. This may not be the case in this reality - the Nox would have responded immediately upon receiving my transmission. Some of the Ancients were able to cure themselves, or were even immune to the plague yet they still lost many. Those who survived took Atlantis and left to start anew in Pegasus. Again, this appears not to be true in this reality. The city ship remains under the ice. As I previously stated, this appears to be where the divergence in our two realities occur.” Thor’s answer seemed strange at first but as he continued it became clear. At least to Harry. He was a font of information.

“Did anyone understand any of that?” Lee said in a stage whisper.

“Some,” Harry admitted.

“Yes,” said Severus, Ginny and Hermione.

“I take it Loki had an interest in Earth? He was here in 1984 for some reason?” Severus backtracked.

“Yes. Conducting unsanctioned experiments on humans. We put an end to it in 1984. By sending this ship to that time he hoped I assume, to continue without our interference as he would possess future knowledge and technology which he might use to circumvent our intervention. But it does not explain…” Thor paused again.

“What do you think he’s trying to work out?” Harry asked Hermione.

“I have no idea.”

“Why you exist,” Thor answered. “As I said, the plague appears to have wiped out all life in your galaxy, millions of years ago. Therefore you should not exist. I am currently seeking out an answer to this question. In the history I know, before the Ancients left this galaxy which they called Avalon, the same in which you call the Milky Way galaxy, they built and used their Legacy Device on a world called Dakara. Its purpose was to restore life throughout this galaxy once it detected the plague was no longer a threat. My sensors are picking up something which may be a Legacy Project Device -.” He stilled once more. His form shimmered and wavered as they waited to hear more. “It appears there were survivors amongst the Ancients. I have successfully connected with Atlantis database. I am finding records - they chose to stay on Earth in isolation. Their population was low and it took them a great many years to recover. They appear to have suffered multiple drops in population in the intervening years which lead them to initiate their Legacy Project on Earth only. It also appears the Ancients of your past walked the same path as my people. They eventually came to sustain themselves through cloning - for a time. They met the same end too - extinction due to genetic degradation.”

“Moral of the story: long-term cloning is bad for the species,” said Hermione.

“Yes,” Thor said sadly. “They appear to have lost hope regarding the Legacy Project also. All human populations were low due to extreme changes to the planets environment approximately 10,000 years ago.”

“Do you mean the end of the Ice Age? It ended about 11,700 years ago,” said Hermione. “It was the end of the Pleistocene Epoch which began about 2.6 million years ago. All the continents were about the same place as where they are now. It was colder and drier and the oceans were lower. There’s an extinction event dating from about 13,000 years ago when a lot of megafauna were dying out -“

“Extrapolating the time period from the last celestial maps in Atlantis’ database, the end of this Ice Age is a near-enough match to the period in which to Ancients became extinct.”

“But we survived. Humanity survived,” said Harry.

“Indeed you did,” Thor said softly. “I -” His hologram suddenly wavered. On the screen something suddenly appeared. It looked like the search bar but was red bordered and empty. Or at least empty at first. As the hologram of Thor wavered again, it started to fill with red.

“Loki,” said Thor. “He installed - program - interfere wi - Representative Program. I - be -ing -.”

“What can we do? Can we stop it?” asked Hermione, hands hesitating at the console, not knowing if she could even do anything.

“- attempting -” Thor’s hologram tried to speak again but to no avail. The event was rapidly over.

“No!” cried Hermione.

“Check the database,” Severus said breathlessly.

Harry’s heart began to plummet.

Frantically Hermione called up the pages they had been looking at before Ginny had accidentally made Thor appear.

It was all still there.

It was all still there but it was different. No longer did it dance on the Pages in Ancient Runic script - now it was in the English Alphabet.

“Oh dear Merlin,” breathed Hermione.

“Why did it only affect the interface and not the database?” asked Severus.

“I don’t know,” replied Hermione. “Maybe Thor stopped it while he was telling the database to translate everything into Modern English.”

“Things can be recovered after being deleted from a computer, right?” asked Lee.

“Earth computers, yes, if you know what you’re doing. But Lee, we’ve barely scratched the surface with this.”

“We’re going to just keep working it out ourselves,” said Ginny. “We should look into this Atlantis,” she reminded them.

Depending on how large it was, they now had a place to house a lot of people.

“Miss Weasley is right. We may have lost the interface, but Thor was still able to give us a great deal to consider before being deleted,” said Severus.

 _Beep beep_ , Harry’s comm sounded, startling them.

“Johnson to the Captain.”

“Captain here. Go ahead.”

“Captain, have you seen the news this morning?” Angelina said. “The miraculous recovery of Arthur Weasley and the Longbottom’s coming out of their catatonic states has made the front cover of the Daily Prophet.”

There was a shared look.

“Like you said, Ginny. We were never going to have a normal summer -”

Harry called a meeting immediately. One by one each member answered. Even Neville, who was hesitant to leave his parents side, did so to answer his Captain’s call. The Creevey brothers could not pick up. Brokenhearted, they had handed back their Comm stones when they could not convince their parents not to move then halfway around the world. But Ron, Fred and George had no such issues, they simply did not answer, which was a quickly becoming less than surprising to Harry and more than a few other crew members. It was only the second time but he was starting to suspect a pattern was forming and Harry suspected Ginny was thinking the same. Investigating it however, would have to wait.

“Forget my brothers, Captain. We can fill them in later,” she told him. Harry gave her a look like ‘are you sure?’ to which she nodded.

Harry brought an Orb down into hands reach and turned off its Cloak. “I call it an Audio-Visual Observer. I got everything Thor said recorded. I can play it back at any time,” he added, showing those physically present the Orbs controller.

“That’s handy,” said Lee. “Is this another one of the things you’ve been testing?” he asked.

“Tank has been testing it, yes.”

“What’s going on, Captain?” asked Marietta.

“Keep it recording,” Harry ordered hand it over. Ginny Cloaked the Orb. “Are you with your mother at the shop, Lieutenant?” Marietta and her mother confirmed that they were. “Keep your eyes open. You’re likely to get visitors. If anyone comes in, interrupt at any time to let us know,” said Harry.

Ms Edgecombe went to make sure the front door was locked as a precaution. They weren’t due to open until the first of August anyway. “Has anyone seen the Daily Prophet?”

“Do we have something to do with the front page news, Captain?” asked Alicia.

“Yes, we do. You all know that Professor Dumbledore really does run a secret group like the Ministry thinks, right?” Everyone responded yes. Severus raised a brow but kept his silence. Harry guessed he probably disapproved of so many children knowing about it. Well, he couldn’t have expected him to change that make in such a short amount of time. “Some of Ginny’s family are members. We’ve been living at their Headquarters on and off since last summer,” Harry elaborated. “The reason their father was attacked last Christmas was because he was guarding something You-Know-Who wants. Mrs Weasley wasn’t willing to tell us anything so Tank used her comm stone to find out what happened. Commander Tank been listening to every meeting that’s happened while she’s been at their headquarters ever since then. During their last meeting, two nights ago -” Harry paused just for a second. Had it really only been two nights ago? No one corrected him. “- they talked a little bit about the shop at the start of a meeting. About one of You-Know-Who’s people poking his nose in.”

“Lucius Malfoy?” asked Ms Edgecombe.

“Yes. Someone else heard through the grapevine and came to have a look.” Harry stopped himself from elaborating any further. He didn’t dare give away anything concerning Snape’s double agent role without his consent.

“Someone who’s a member of the Order?” guessed Ernie.

“Who?” asked Lavender and Parvati.

“That would be me.” Severus Snape decided that was his queue to make his presence known. The comms exploded with noise, most of it unintelligible for over a minute.

Except that was, for Luna’s, “Welcome aboard.”

“Yes, we successfully recruited Professor Snape,” Ginny added with a great deal of exasperation once this quietened down a little. “He’s part of the crew now, so it’s Lieutenant Snape.”

Harry interrupted, “I thought he was starting off as an Ensign.”

“I made the executive decision to promote him while you were asleep and I was in command,” replied Ginny matter-of-factly. He had definitely earned it. “He did help get you back to the ship and worked out the issue we were having with the medical database after all.”

“Good point,” Harry conceded.

“Wait? The medical database?” said Hannah. She was one of the most devoted to trying to solve its mysteries.

“The language appears to be a Latin-precursor,” Severus answered.

“That’s why we couldn’t work it out. We were too focused on Ancient Runes,” added Neville.

“You’re part of this, Neville?” asked Susan.

“Ginny - I mean, Commander Tank, commed me and we made the decision together to use the healing device she’d found,” Neville told Susan.

“That makes sense. I mean it’s your parents and her dad,” she said.

“I tried to get my brothers involved too but I couldn’t wake them,” Ginny admitted. Everyone who had shared a room with them agreed that waking a Weasley wasn’t the easiest of tasks. “Lieutenant Snape, the Captain and I went and I used the device on them.”

“And Potter utterly exhausted himself,” added Severus.

“It was worth it,” said Harry. “We’ve learnt a lot of things -”

“Don’t forget to write a report when you can,” Hermione reminded them.

Harry nodded.”- and we’ll be working on improving the technology so we can deploy it in the field.”

“- and not end up with extreme exhaustion,” Severus added again. Harry nearly rolled his eyes at him. Then he suddenly realised why Snape was harping on about it. He would have had helped to have carried Harry back here. Harry knew he wasn’t light.

He was about to thank him when- “Someone’s here,” Neville suddenly whispered startling them. More than a few gasped. Harry’s heart clenched in his chest.

“Where are you?” asked Harry.

“I’m in the hospital room with my family. I just ducked out under the pretence I was going to the loo and Cloaked myself. I did end up finding that bottomless pouch and I’ve been keeping my helmet in it. I’m using its comm so I can stay close but they can’t hear me,” said Neville. “He’s a tall fellow, dark complexion. They all seem to know him. Nan just called him Kingsley, I think.”

“Kingsley Shacklebolt,” Harry, Ginny, Hermione and Severus said over top of one another.

“He’s a member of the Order and an Auror,” Ginny explained. “He might have worked with your parents, Neville.”

“Just like Dumbledore, to send old friends to see them and gather intel,” muttered Harry unhappily. Hermione looked equally unimpressed but the opposite could be said for Severus, albeit for a different reason. He looked a little impressed by Harry’s observation.

“- nice of you to come,” the voice of Molly Weasley was suddenly heard. One of her brothers it seemed had finally opened his comm up to Ginny’s. Somehow everyone understood they all needed to remain silent. Harry moved his comm stone closer to Ginny’s own.

“Thought you might want to know: Arthur’s recovery made the front page of the Daily Prophet.” The voice was one they all easily recognised - it belonged to Remus Lupin, formerly their Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor.

They heard the sound of a newspaper rustling. “Oh look, Arthur! They used the picture from our Egypt trip!” They heard Mrs Weasley say. “Wait, what’s this? Frank and Alice Longbottom?! What are they talking about?”

“Apparently around the same time as Arthur was rather miraculously healed, Frank and Alice Longbottom came out of their catatonic states.” The sound of a chair being moved accompanied Remus’ reply. “They have no memories past You-Know-Who’s fall all those years ago. No memory of the attack at all, but other than that they are reportedly fully cognitively functional, to use a Healer’s turn-of-phase.”

“But that’s incredible! I had no idea -”

“Neville’s parents?” they heard Ron speak over Mrs Weasley.

“You boys wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?” Harry gritted her teeth against the smile in Remus’ voice. That ‘ _I’m being nice, tell me everything_ ’ tone that Ginny had told him about and had been driving her mad for weeks.

All was quiet.

“Boys?” Mrs Weasley intonation was clear. Harry wiped a hand down his face. The brothers were terrible bluffers. The twins had a little control of their countenances and usually just ran when they were in trouble with their mother. Ron however, Harry suspected Mrs Weasley had read something on Ron’s face. A few seconds later, Harry’s suspicion was proved right. “Ronald Bilius Weasley, what’s going on?”

“What’s going on is my father has been awake for a day and Remus learnt about it from the newspaper,” snapped Ginny. “Seeing as he’s been living under the same roof as us for weeks, shouldn’t he have heard it from you or me, mother? You remembered to send a letter to my brothers to tell them, but you once again forgot all about me!”

“Ginny -!” Remus started while her mother spluttered trying to put together some reasonable sort of excuse but Ginny was clearly too irate to care.

“Did you even bother to look for me before you left for the hospital, Remus?” Ginny asked accusingly.

“Well I - I thought your mother must had fetched you..." Ginny had to wonder how long she had been gone from the house before he came up with that assumption.

The tension in her body had her shaking badly. Harry gently set a hand on her shoulder. Ginny seemed to half-expect him to be shaking his head. Instead he nodded his support.

“Now look here..." Molly Weasley finally found her voice.

If Mrs Weasley had expected her daughter to wither at her angry tone, she was sorely mistaken. Molly found her infamous temper thrown back at her. “No! No, I will not. Don’t you dare tell me it’s all a mistake. Don’t tell me I’ve got no right to be angry. This has been done it me - you have been doing this to me all my life!”

“Ginny -” Her father sounded very hurt.

“I’m not sorry. I’ve got no reason to be,” said Ginny through gritted teeth. Now was the time to end this conversation, “The three of you are probably feeling the fight or flight response welling up in you right now - I suggest you go with flight and fast. Get back here now and make sure you aren’t followed,” Ginny commanded her brothers.

Through the comm came shouts and the noises of chairs falling over, more shouts - some close and some growing distant accompanied by the sound of panting and one of the twins shouting, “Helmets! Helmets! Cloak! Cloak!” before the line of communication was broken.

“Idiots!” Hermione unleashed. “Why didn’t they answer their comms before? We could have warned them before Professor Lupin came in.”

Before Harry could answer as to what the brothers might be thinking Lee spoke, “I didn’t even know Ron was with them..."

“Neither did I,” said Hermione, deep furrows marring her brow.

“What do you mean? Ron’s been with them for a week. Helping with the shop. They’ve been sleeping here at night,” said Ginny. The twins had only convinced their mother to let Ron join them because they could prove they were earning money with the business. Why would they hide Ron’s presence?

“The twins been coming in and out of the shop, and the ship over the past week but since they set up the Vanishing Cabinets they’ve been working on something else,” said Marietta. “I never saw Ron.”

“I don’t remember seeing him either,” added Clarissa.

“Marietta, did they mention what else they were working on?” asked Harry.

“No..."

“They’ve been Conjuring things to sell,” said Ginny. Everyone present in the room turned to stare at her. Ron was their mule, and a willing one.

“What..? Why?" was the general consensus.

“Because my brothers are stupid and selfish and always want for what they can get now...” Three comm stones were better than two and if quick money was in the mix, Ron would happily join in on the twins scheme.

“Commander, that’s one hell of an accusation,” said Lee weakly.

“We should take a look at their comm stones as soon as they get here, Captain,” said Ginny.

Harry thought his legs might go under him if he had been standing. Merlin how his chest hurt. Harry found Lee and Hermione didn’t look much better.

“I’m sorry, I know they’re your friends but I’ve known them all my life. I know it seems like I’m leaping to a conclusion but this is just like something that they’d do if they found the chance to...”

“Umm, what should we do, Captain? Commander? Is there anything we can do to help?” said Marietta.

“Should I come to the ship too?” asked Neville.

That was a hard one to answer. Harry was as hesitant as the rest of the crew to ask Neville to leave his parents so soon after he got them back. “Neville, I...” started Harry.

“I think we’re in a damned if we do, damned if we don’t situation...” Ginny started to answer.

Severus spoke up. “I feel like I should apologise for my part in bringing attention to...”

“It’s okay,” Ginny waved off his apology. “We were getting unwanted attention from the time we started wearing the suits under our robes. Then there were the dealings with the goblins...”

“Tank’s right,” said Harry. “We’re in a tough spot but it’s nothing we can’t handle.”

“I’m going to stay. Professor Lupin just walked in. He’s talking to the Auror. I’m going to try and stall them,” said Neville. “Lieutenant Longbottom out.”

“Good luck!” Hermione called out but Neville was already gone. “We don’t even have a Brig. I mean, if it’s really as bad as Ginny thinks, we don’t have a Brig. We never even considered the need for one. What are even supposed to do if...” she started babbling. Harry guided the hoverchair over. She didn’t hesitate to sit with him in it and they held one another.

The idea that Ron especially might have betrayed them. It hurt, bad. Especially after all the troubles that had happened between in during their fourth year.

“I need reports on their movements in and out of the shop-front and the Requirement,” Ginny sounded pained and Harry had to wonder if she regretted voicing her suspicion in the way she had. He admired her for putting it aside and getting down to business. This was after all, very much a security issue and she was Chief Security Officer. “Everyone who’s got something to report call in to my comm stone please.” Several voices acknowledged the order. “Lieutenant, Lieutenant Commander, please follow me,” she directed Lee and Snape.

After everyone who had something to report had spoken, and there wasn’t very much to report, Marietta and her mother watched for the three boys and let them into the shop. Harry left Hermione in the care of her parents in the building across before he met the others at the entrance. As Ginny had asked, Lee and Severus stayed just out of sight rather than just under Cloak like she did. Nearby and through the PADD+, Harry watched emotionless as, with three rapid flashes of orange light, Ron and the twins were stunned before Ginny relieved them of their comm stones. Harry helped transport them to the ships temporary Brig. The very same security device Ginny had used to keep others in Grimmauld Place out and unaware would keep them in. The room had mini comm stones placed about it and a couple of Cloaked Orbs watching them so she would know when her brothers woke up.

Hermione had collected herself somewhat and returned when Angelina, Alicia and Katie had come aboard to see the three Weasley brothers comm stones brought to the database.

It didn’t last long. “No!” cried Hermione as they read through pages of data on the stones. It was as bad, perhaps worse than even Ginny had expressed. Their credits, were all very generously renewed after they had given them over kitting out the Order of the Phoenix with spell-resistant clothing. Where Harry had been careful to use his sparingly and to the purpose of his role on the crew, the Weasley brothers had not. A great deal of their credits were gone. Given over to Conjuring clothes. And not simply new wardrobes for themselves. There were lines and lines of data of different measurements. Using the hard work of the crews resident fashionistas the younger Weasley brothers had Conjured up perhaps two hundred or more individual articles of gold-infused, spell-resistant clothing.

“They started a clothing shop? But where?”

“Knockturn Alley,” Ginny answered. She was once again the centre of attention. “Look at when it started. A week ago, right after the twins fixed the Vanishing Cabinets. They’ve always seen Knockturn Alley as a place of opportunities...”

“What opportunities?” Angelina demanded to know.

“Money,” Ginny answered. “A way to get rich quick.”

“That makes no sense,” declared Hermione.

But she was wrong. If anything it made perfect sense. Ron had obsessively asked about the gold since he learnt it was present in the asteroid. He always complained about how little money he had, and too readily accepted it when Harry offered to spend his own on Ron’s behalf. The twins weren’t much better. Just look at how fiercely they had gone after Bagman when he had tricked them out of their life savings and they had given only very standard protests before they had accepted the thousand Galleons of prize money Harry had offered them.

Why would they wait when wealth was in such easy reach.

“We practically have infinite resources at our fingertips. Planets, moons, asteroids full!” Hermione continued her protest.

“I can’t explain any more than they don’t see the resources of countless worlds as being as good as the Galleons they can put quickly in their pockets,” said Ginny.

“You remember how much Ron pushed the gold thing?” said Lee. A few nodded, so Harry clearly wasn’t the only one thinking it.

“How long do you think they’ll be out, Commander?” Harry asked.

“I actually don’t know, Captain. The only other time I stunned a person was when we came to collect you and we didn’t stick around,” Ginny admitted. “I have the room monitored though.”

“That’ll do,” said Harry. “Are you certain they can’t get out?”

“Yes. Even if they get the door open, they can’t get through the security shield.” Ginny explained, “I’ve tested it, walking and running. I’ve even shot at the thing on all settings. It’s solid.”

“Right. That means we only need two teams instead of three,” said Harry. “Who’s willing to go investigate Knockturn Alley?”

Severus, Lee and Katie put their hands up. Over the comm Luna added her voice. “I can floo and be there in a few minutes. I’d like to help.”

“Thank you, Lieutenant. Get here as quick as you can,” said Harry. “The rest of us will watch the shop-front. I hope Neville gets back to us soon.”

“Shouldn’t you keep out of sight, Captain?” asked Alicia.

“I will. So will everyone but Marietta and Ms. Edgecombe,” said Harry. “If the Order shows up all they’re going to see is a mother and daughter busy getting the shop ready for opening in a few days.”

“And we haven’t seen anyone they might ask about,” offered Ms Edgecombe.

“You got it, Ms. E,” said Lee.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unbeta'd. All mistakes are my own.


	4. Chapter Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ginny's suspicion is proven correct, and that's not all that is uncovered by their investigation. Just when they thought it couldn't possibly get worse, it does. 
> 
> And all of this with the Order of the Phoenix breathing down the crews necks.

Under Cloak, they wove their way through the busy lunchtime rush of Diagon Alley to the entrance of Knockturn Alley where the crowds were lesser but its narrowness made it harder to move. They were far down the restricted lane when their newest crew member noticed a shop which had not been there when he’d come earlier in the summer seeking hard-to-acquire potions ingredients: Nebula Robes and Alchemy.

Through the window they could see not only clothes but stacked shelves as well. Lee recognised a shelf of vials as being Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder, something Fred and George had openly discussed selling in their old joke shop plans.

At the door of the shop was a big fellow whose nice new robes, thankfully not of the type that concerned the crew, were mismatched with his matted hair and a permanent scowl. Severus identified him as Brooks Buttercup, a doorman-by-day, and an Enforcer-for-hire at night. He wasn’t very good at magic but he was said to be great with his fists. He opened the door to a ridiculously overdressed Witch. Her black leather dress was so tight she look like she could hardly breathe. Slit up the length of one very long leg and a slit down the length of her chest, the tail of the arctic fox pelt she wore about her neck sat tucked between her bosoms. On each finger were rings some four or five deep and bracelets from wrist to elbow. The heels of her shoes were so high that she practically walked on her toes. Luna identified her as Madame Margaretha, Owner of Broussehan’s House of Spirit - a Brothel. She was known to the journalistic community as the confidential informer behind the most salacious sex scandals of the past few decades.

Madame Margaretha walked toward the door at such a leisurely pace the investigative team was able to get in ahead of her with little haste. Immediately Lee saw more things he recognised as being creations of the twins. Things which Madame Margaretha sort out even before someone could approach her to offer their services. On Harry’s order, Ginny got her Orbs recording everything they saw.

“Ah, Aimée, yes. I have a very _special_ gentleman friend coming to visit,” the brothel Madame spoke huskily to a young Witch. “He’d very much enjoy this game.” _Reusable Hangman_ \- ‘ _Spell It Or He'll Swing!’_ proclaimed a large sign hanging above the conical display case.

“Oui, Madame,” the young woman’s French accent jolted Harry’s memory and he realised where he’d seen her before. At Hogwarts during the Triwizard tournament. She was one of the Beauxbaton students. “Is there anything else I can help you with?”

“Yes. I’d like to place a repeat order on your exceptional WonderWitch products. They’ve got business just booming. It’s a pity you left. You’re missing out on good money.”

Harry followed the pair to a large glass case loaded with items. One-by-one the Shop Witch gathered a basketful of each for the Madame: _‘First Love Beguiling Bubbles!’_ one sign declared. A love potion in bubble form. Just blow in the direction of your intended and _‘Pop!’ - It’s Love!_. Packages of clear cellophane wrapped sweets were labelled _‘Cupid Crystals’ - Taste Love!_. Under a glass cover smoke glittered under the light _‘Twilight Moonbeams’ - Love Potion is in the Air!_ and _‘Kissing Concoction’ Love’s lip balm - one kiss is never enough when your lips taste of Love!_

“That’s ingenious and insidious. They’ve completely transformed Love potions,” Severus remarked. “They never showed any such a talent in my classroom.”

“Oh, they did a lot of experimentation outside the classroom,” said Lee.

“And at home,” added Ginny. She looked like she could be sick at any moment.

Harry’s own stomach revolted at the knowledge that not only had the twins, whom he once looked up to, had created such items but Severus Snape, Hogwarts Potions Master, a former Death Eater, had called them insidious.

“I recognise everything here. Lavender, Padma and Parvati designed all of these,” remarked Luna from the clothing displays.

The door was opened from the outside again by Buttercup and two more people entered. A father and son.

Lucius and Draco Malfoy.

“ _Euel sweyne_ ,” Ginny hissed.

“Mr Malfoy! Master Malfoy! Welcome back,” a man swept out of the backroom to greet them. He was dressed in spell-resistant clothing.

“Buford Squabs,” Severus identified him. “He’s a thug, an associate of Buttercup.”

“Squabs,” Lucius acknowledged the man and blatantly ignored the women. “My - _associate_ \- is very pleased by your products.” He gestured with his cane and almost hit Luna.

Lucius Malfoy’s associate could only be one person. A money-making scheme might have been forgiven but selling directly to him -!

Ginny swore colourfully.

“We need to shut this place down. Now!” spat Harry.

“How? It’s the middle of the day,” said Lee.

“I don’t know but we cannot let the likes of Malfoy leave with anything,” said Ginny, looking like she was ready to tackle somebody. Katie looked ready to join her.

As Harry and his team started to put together a plan, the brothel Madame completed her purchase and was escorted out by Aimée, complicating matters further. If they acted before her return she might be able to raise the alarm. If they waited to move until she got back, Malfoy might have made his purchase and left.

“It might be wisest to wait until after closing,” Severus advised. “We’ve got little chance of going unnoticed right now.”

“- so pleased to hear about your wife’s sister and family back home,” Squabs said.

“It’s been a delight to have them all back,” Lucius replied magnanimously.

“It can’t be -” Severus’ breath hitched.

“What?” asked Katie.

“He’s talking about Bellatrix Lestrange. Her husband and brother also. They’ve been rotting away in Azkaban since November of 1981. They’re the ones who put Frank and Alice Longbottom in St Mungo’s.”

“Oh no,” fretted Luna.

“So there’s been a break out?” Lee shuddered.

“Oh Merlin, no,” Katie’s voice wavered.

Harry look to Severus who looked to him, unconsciously rubbing a hand over where the Dark Mark lay. In two strides he closed the space between him and stilled his hand. He shuddered.

“We need to let others know.” Harry opened up his comm to the other team and delivered the news.

All of it - the bad and the worse.

As angry as they were about the Knockturn shop, the news of the escapees took precedence. Ms Edgecombe scoured the Daily Prophet frontwards and backwards, cover to cover with a number of spells seeking out specific words and found no mention of the event. It seemed no one but the very worst of Wizarding society knew it had happened. Hermione volunteered to send the information to someone she knew at the Daily Prophet and promised to send the same missive to Luna’s father.

They also needed to let the Order know. Ginny made the call to Neville suspecting the Longbottom’s visitor would still be there.

“Neville, are you still at the hospital? Is Kingsley Shacklebolt still there?”

“Ginny! You left your mother in tears and your father hardly any better off -” replied the voice of Remus Lupin.

“Is - Kingsley - _there_?!” Ginny shouted.

“Yes and yes, he is,” Neville sounded exhausted.

“Yes, I am.”

“Kingsley, there’s been a breakout at Azkaban. Probably in the last day and a half.”

“What?” Several voices cried out.

“Neville, it’s Harry. From what we heard, the Lestrange’s are at Malfoy Manor,” Harry elaborated. He heard Augusta Longbottom fretting and voices he assumed to be Frank and Alice’s trying to calm her. A chair fell down and there could be heard a rush of movement and voices. Harry pictured a lot of confusion and fear on the other end of the comm, somewhat a reflection of things on his end but what else was he supposed to do? They needed to know and they needed to know straight away so effective action could be taken. He could hear Remus and Kingsley trying to calm and reassure a frantic Augusta that they would do all in their power to help as she fled the room to seek out hospital security.

Squabs, order book already at hand, invited the Malfoy’s to be seated with him at a mahogany table. Once seated, Lucius handed him a scroll. Luna followed them and looked over Squabs shoulder before making several gestures to body parts which Harry realised quickly translated to mean the parchment was a list of body measurements. The list looked long.

“Neville?” Harry said so quietly he could barely hear his own voice.

“I’m here,” he replied gently.

“Harry, was it?” a woman’s voice asked.

“Alice?”

“Yes,” said Alice. “Harry, what’s going on? Instead of getting to know my almost grown up son, I’ve got people here interrogating him...” Alice’s words hit Harry like a blow to the stomach. If things weren’t already bad enough.

Nearby, Katie was barely keeping Ginny from trashing the place. Or the Malfoy’s. The whole place was in danger of Ginny taking her fury out on it.

“Nev-Neville, we’ve been betrayed - from the _inside_ ,” Harry’s voice broke as he spoke the words. A solid presence beside him kept him on his feet. Harry found himself longing for the hoverchair. “We-we found out - about the break-out, while we were investigating...” Harry’s voice caught in his throat as his anger at Ron and the twins threatened to give way to tears he couldn’t afford to be shedding right now. “Neville...I can’t - I won’t ask you to...” Harry spoke through gritted teeth.

“You don’t need to,” Neville said gently. “Is this about Ginny’s suspicion earlier - about...”

“Yes!” Harry lamented. “Neville, I wish she’d been wrong but - Neville, it’s worse,” he confessed.

Oh Merlin, what else was going to happen? First they lost Dennis and Colin. Fred, George and Ron, once it became known what they had done would be pariahs and now, Neville. They couldn’t expect him to give up his parents after having them back for a day.

At the table Lucius Malfoy handed over a generous down-payment making Squabs eyes glitter. Harry felt his determination to get the place shut down as soon as possible rise.

Aimée returned and was waved to the back room by Squabs.

“I love you both very much but I have to go now.” Neville’s voice was solid resolve.

“What?” Alice and Harry said at the same time.

“Neville, son -”

“The Order will protect you. I won’t be out of touch for long. I promise we’ll be able to communicate...”

“Neville, no...”

“No, don’t...”

There were shouts, names called out with pleas to ‘ _hurry_ ’, to ‘ _stop him leaving_ ’ which quickly faded away to a lull of busy noise, people talking and going about their day unaware of the world and its chaos beyond their reason for being at the hospital.

“Neville?”

He didn’t answer straight away but when he did, he asked, “Is it okay that I promised them...”

“Yes, absolutely, Neville. That’s fine. We can do that.” Harry has done the same to keep in touch with Sirius after all. “No one’s going to be against you doing that,” Harry answered in a rush.

Squabs, ecstatic about the sale, asked the Malfoy’s to stay and have a drink with him, even going so far as offering to order Aimée to serve any whims they might have, but Lucius waved him off making the excuse of a previous engagement. He swept across the shop floor with Draco close behind, tapped his cane twice upon the entrance and the pair were let out by Buttercup.

“Where do you want me to meet you?” Neville asked.

“Nebula Robes and Alchemy in Knockturn Alley,” said Harry. “Three pouches are better than two. We’ve got a lot to remove and no time to do it.”

Squabs waited until it was closed before he tore open the purse to count the gold. He did not notice as the lock on the front door turned or the open sign switched to closed.

“A lot of what?” spluttered Neville. “Ginny, what have your brothers been up to?”

Neville got a furious growl from her in response.

"Selling copies of our summer wardrobes to whoever wants it. Lucius Malfoy was just in here making a big order. He had already purchased some at some point and tested it. He - Neville, Vol- You-Know-Who had him put in the order just now," Harry answered.

"No," breathed Neville. "They can't have."

"They have," Harry replied sadly. "Ron, Fred and George have armoured who knows how many Death Eaters with spell-resistant clothing and if we hadn't found this place, they would have sold it to many more."

More than satisfied, Squabs took up the gold and strode into the backroom.

He never made it.

The sound of his body hitting the floor drew out Aimée and she quickly joined him. Lee looked back and forth between Ginny, and the two people she’d just rendered unconscious, several times rapidly before making an unintelligible noise.

Harry only relaxed after Ginny holstered it.

“I take it we are clearing this place out in the middle of the day then?” asked Severus, surprisingly unexasperated.

“Yes, we are,” said Ginny. “Can you and Lee please move Squabs and Aimée into the backroom and bind them? We’ll start with the clothes first. Katie, can you get the lights? Luna, please draw the curtains,” Ginny directed them. “Neville, when you get here we may need to use your pouch for the back room out faster. And Captain, you sit down before you fall down.”

Harry didn’t argue her orders.

“Okay, I’ll be there as soon as I can,” said Neville. “Longbottom, out.”

Severus levitated the mahogany table and a chair to a more central location and helped Harry to sit down. Harry set his pouch on the table, opening the top so wide, it nearly covered the surface as Katie, Ginny and Luna arrived with arms full of merchandise. Lee and Severus soon rejoined them and with the two certified Wizards using no small amount of wand work the shop floor was cleared when Neville called back in after a few minutes.

“I’m here. How do I get in? There’s a really big bloke covering the door,” he panted. 

“I’ll come get you,” said Lee. “We’ve found a back door.”

“Start on the back room, we’ll finish here,” Harry ordered after him.

“Bind the papers into bundles as you find them,” Severus suggested.

“Yeah, good idea.”

“We should check for hidden spaces too,” Severus added.

“Oh, I can help with that,” Luna took off her helmet and put on her glasses.

Nothing was hidden in the shop front but the same couldn’t be said for the backroom.

“Since when do our helmets come with the ability to see through things?” asked Katie.

“They don’t. I was working on an upgrade right before the holidays,” said Ginny. “The idea was to test the prototype over the summer before offering the upgrade to everyone.”

“Is the gun a prototype too?” piped Lee.

“Not a gun, not a toy. When I have the time to train you to use this very dangerous if mishandled weapon properly I will,” replied Ginny in her best Commander voice.

Harry didn’t quiet laugh.

Harry couldn’t help but feel pride in the group as they worked together to clear the place out. The office and store rooms where well-organised, things were labelled Lee reported. Harry suspected a woman’s touch there. Given the place had likely only been open for a week, there wasn’t a great deal of paperwork. Receipts were filed in one draw, order forms in another. The twins, and likely Ron, they found, had more than one hiding place in the back portion of the shop. There were two safes, both clearly hastily made additions. One held their takings and another the twins journals and scrolls, years of notes on their experiments and inventions and all of it surprisingly organised for the chaotic pair.

A handful of people came to the door while they worked. Buttercup tried to let them in. A few banged at the door for attention, which they did not receive. Eventually Buttercup gave up and left, figuring the shop had been closed early for whatever reason his mind could make up.

When it was all done Ginny asked Severus to see if Reviving Spell would awaken Aimée. The young Frenchwoman awakened with a gasp. She looked around in fear seeing nothing.

“What’s a Beauxbaton girl doing in Knockturn Alley?” Aimée cried out in fear when Ginny spoke. She didn’t hear the other young woman’s voice but something genderless and angry. Harry hadn’t known Ginny’s prototype did that. It was something which seemed to be more voices than one speaking in sync. “Answer me!”

“I - I - I’ll do whatever you want! Please don’t hurt me!” Aimée pleaded.

“I’ve got no interest in buying your body, even if you have been selling it,” snarled Ginny. “Now answer my question.”

“I couldn’t go home. Mère, she remarried while I was away at Hogwarts. He was an associate of my Père. He is très mauvais. He is a bad man. He - he would...come into my room,” she blubbered.

Harry’s heart went out to her.

“He probably used his friendship with her parents to crawl into her bed,” Severus said softly through internal comms. Harry shuddered.

“Enough! You have a choice. You can stay here until maybe someone might bother to look in and find you -” If the young woman did chose this, Harry would send the Order an anonymous letter. “- and you have to answer to them. Or, you swear to me here and now, that you will leave England, leave Britain and never return and I will let you go.”

“I’ve got nowhere to go. I have a debt to pay to Madame Margaretha!”

Ginny threw Malfoy’s down payment and the shops takings at Aimée’s feet and signalled for Severus to unbind her. Harry couldn’t blame Ginny for wanting to dispose of the money. At least this way it was going to a good cause and Aimée could pay off her debts and restart her life where she chose.

“There’s over twelve-thousand galleons there...” His voice came out sounding as terrifying as Ginny’s. The brothers Weasley, had made a small fortune. Perhaps more than their father had made his whole working life.

“Flamel, jette un sort de protection sur moi. Oui! Yes, I will go. You will never see me again, I swear it!”

“Then run!” Ginny advised.

Hermione had the hoverchair waiting for Harry as they walked onto the Requirement. Luna and Katie practically carried him back. Ms Edgecombe met them as well with lunch, and insisted that they should not continue with anything on empty stomachs, even going so far as to watch them while they ate.

Harry was grateful for the older woman’s presence. Merlin only knew how many times they’d all gotten so caught up they had forgotten to eat. That was perhaps one reason for Harry becoming so exhausted by the brain snakes healing device. He’d not eaten since the night before, and things were even busier now than they had been. When it was done, Luna and Katie along with Lee and Ginny went to join the Enterprise Watch team. Harry was certain he had seen Fletcher in his unfortunate Witch disguise on their way back. Whether his presence in Diagon Alley was for the Order or for his own ends, they did not know.

The four who were left got themselves set up in the Conjuring room after the meal. Hermione could barely pry her eyes away from the recordings Ginny’s Orbs had made which played on several screens circling the room and sobbed quietly as the evidence mounted, especially upon seeing the one showing Lucius and Draco Malfoy.

Harry was glad Angelina was with her closest girlfriends, still watching for the Order. If Hermione could be so distraught about one of her best friends, how would Angelina be feeling in her place, seeing what they were seeing, already knowing that two of the perpetrators was her boyfriends of more than a year. Harry tried not to think of it any deeper than that, working hard to separate his own feelings from the investigation but as time passed the stinging in his eyes increased, sometimes making it hard to focus. He was glad Ginny had insisted on staying out to plant more Orbs around the Alley’s. She had taken her brother’s betrayal to heart and was set on not having their security risked in such a way ever again.

Working as a team, they took each article of clothing individually from the pouches, put them through a scan and matched with the data retrieved from the Weasley brothers’ comm stones before demolecularising them. Samples of their other creations, such as the disguised love potions and the Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder were placed into a spare stasis box. They would be frozen in a moment in time, like the food the stasis boxes typically held. They didn’t have the means to test the maturity of the love potions at this time but they didn’t want them ageing any further. Love potions were notorious for getting stronger the longer they were left to mature. All documents were scanned into the database and the originals put aside.

On one of the screens Ron, Fred and George were still unconscious from the stun blasts. On a whim, Harry used his own newly conjured PADD+ to bring up the Orbs at Grimmauld Place. A meeting, it turned out, was in full swing. Harry saw Mr and Mrs Weasley, the two eldest Weasley brothers, Neville’s grandmother and parents were present. Augusta Longbottom was speaking and was as irate with the Order as Ginny had been with her mother, which felt to Harry like days ago but had really only been a few hours past. 

“- ask again...where-is-my-grandson?” Mrs Longbottom demanded to know. By her tone, Harry would guess she had asked this question more than once already.

“She won’t stop asking until she gets the answer she wants,” sighed Neville.

“Which is?” Severus asked.

“Me where she can see me,” Neville answered quietly. “Maybe-maybe I should have stayed...”

“If you had stayed, Neville, you’d be in that room right now, with all those people and they’d be interrogating you,” Hermione stated as she wiped her eyes. “It’s good the tables have been turned on them.”

“Hermione’s right,” said Harry. “Ginny had to put up with their questions for weeks. I wouldn’t wish a repeat on anyone.” Truth be told, it was nice seeing the Order being the ones getting interrogated for once.

“They have to come to the shop sooner or later,” said Hermione. “We need to decide o...”

“Not if it never opens,” Severus said suddenly. Everyone present turned to look at him.

“What do you mean?” Hermione asked. “We need the shop to find people.”

“Do we?” Severus replied. “I was talking to Clarissa and she informed me she already had a long list of names...” It seemed he’d been busy doing more than just learning from Hermione and Lee while he’d been sleeping, Harry realised.

“But if we close it, how will others find us?” asked Neville.

“I never said anything about not having a shop front,” Severus said passing Neville a rather large bundle of parchment scrolls. “But perhaps we shouldn’t have one in Diagon Alley.”

“Are you suggesting we move it? To Knockturn Alley? Horizont Alley?” asked Harry.

“Yes, but not to Knockturn or Horizont, or Carkitt Market. It would be useless there when the Order could find it again so easily. But not so if we were to move it over a-ways to the Muggle side,” Severus replied. “When I was returning from St Mungo’s with you and Miss - with Commander Tank, I couldn’t help but notice that the shop front beside the Granger’s new office is also available.”

“Move it to the Muggle side? But how will people find us...OH!” An invisible wand seemed to cast the Lumos spell over Hermione’s head. “Word-of-mouth!” she declared. “The list Ms. Edgecombe made! We could get the new location out by word-of-mouth.”

Severus nodded. “We only need to move the merchandise from the front of the store. The plan to adjoining of the Wizarding and Muggle buildings can still go ahead...”

“That’s brilliant!” said Hermione.

“...and we could make use of a Secret Keeper as the Order do.”

“Alright. Contact the others and we’ll put it to a vote,” proposed Harry. “And then we need to discuss - what we’re going to do about...”

“...about those galleon-hungry traitors in the Brig, Captain?” Hermione said humourlessly.

“Yeah.”

Once Harry confirmed with Ginny that she had the length of Diagon Alley covered by Orbs, he recalled her and the watch team back to the shop. It was not as though when the Order came they would have an easy time. There was no way the Order was just going to walk into the shop uninvited, not through their locked door. They wouldn’t just be able to blast the door down, not in the middle of Diagon Alley, if one or more were willing to do just that and there was no doubt some would suggest it at least. The crew in the know had prepared for this eventuality since they had started planning the shop. And they were prepared to give the Order trouble just looking in too. Not even Mad-Eye’s magical all-seeing eye could see in. The man himself even said as much as the Order’s meeting went on. The windows and front door each had curtains which could a drawn, made of the same material as their robes and the walls were lined with a wallpaper with the same properties. In other words, the crew could be emptying out the shop front with the Order on the other side of the door and the Order wouldn’t know.

As the Order argued back and forth about what to do and the likelihood of their coming to the shop front came closer and closer to being a reality, the crew came together via their comm stones and the vote for the move was unanimously in favour of. As Hermione took off to talk to her parents and secure the other location, Harry’s team merged with the the shop front and Alley watch teams and started packing as soon as one of the bottomless pouches could be spared. Ms Edgecombe cleverly whipped up a sign which read ‘ _Due to popularity, ENTERPRISE is seeking a BIGGER and BETTER location. We apologise for the delay to our official opening but we promise we will be open soon! Be amongst the first to know about our new opening time and location of our new shop front please owl your name and address to our Owl Post Office Box 1701_.’

When the Order finally got Augusta Longbottom to understand that the shop front would be the best place to start in looking for her missing grandson, even the shop sign had been removed. All that was left were drawn curtains and Ms Edgecombe’s small sign in the window.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unbeta'd. All mistakes are my own.


	5. Chapter Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The traitors are dealt with, birthday's are celebrated and the crew makes some accidental discoveries about Requirement.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please check the tags. They are updated with each additional chapter.

This may be the hardest thing they might ever do in their lives, thought Harry.

After the Order of the Phoenix had been dealt with as much as the Order could be dealt with, which was pretty much with avoidance and silence - but for a letter from Neville to his family - the crew came together again for another meeting by comm. Nobody liked it but right now it was the only way they could all be together.

But perhaps it was for the best because if they were altogether things would definitely be more distressing for them than it already was.

It was hard enough to hear, let alone see that between them Fred, George and Ron had Conjured no less that two hundred and twelve articles of spell-resistant clothing. The Knockturn Investigation team had returned with only one hundred and forty.

That meant there were seventy-two articles of spell-resistant clothing unaccounted for. Robes, shirts, vests, trousers, skirts and even a pair of custom-made corsets were out there being worn by Who-Knew-Who. There were no names on the receipts. All purchases were made by coin, no credit notes were accepted.

There was no trail to follow but for the clues they already had.

And the clothes weren’t the only big sellers, nor were the Love potions. The very same Extendable Ears with which the twins had attempted to spy on the Order with just last summer were as hot-selling as the Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder, Portable Swamps, Decoy Detonators, Headless Hats and Shield Hats. And not one item was sold cheaply. The Weasley brothers had made a small fortune with their endeavour. Their 'get rich quick' scheme had been working.

“Nebula Robes and Alchemy? Oh, they can’t even pretend that they meant it to be a joke shop,” declared Susan.

“What they’ve done, it’s downright malicious, it is! They’ve armoured monsters!” shouted Seamus. "Selling out to You-Know-Who and his cronies!"

“Have they been questioned yet?” asked Terry. “Have they been made to answer for what they’ve done?”

“Commander Tank stunned them as soon as they come aboard. They’re still unconscious. The way she did it appears to last for hours. We have them in a makeshift Brig,” Hermione answered before clarifying that a Brig was a term meaning a prison on a ship.

“I think it’s time, don’t you?” said Lee. “We know a Reviving spell will wake them.” Everyone agreed.

While they were still unconscious, they were stripped of their over-robes, armour, and any other things in their possession, one of which turned out to be another bottomless pouch which carried even more evidence, and of course their wands. They were given only plain Wizarding robes to wear, left over from their old lives. Finally the boys were put under a Binding Curse before they were awoken.

It was decided Ginny, in her role as Chief Security Officer, would be the one to take the lead and question them. Not the least because she knew them best.

Fred, George and Ron Weasley did not open their eyes to find the faces of their friends and crew mates. Instead they found themselves faced with the blank faces of helmets, visors on a one-way mirror setting so their guilty faces were reflected back at them.

Ron was the first to speak and unsurprisingly launched immediately into a fit of temper. “Bloody hell! What’s going on? What do you think you’re doing? This isn’t funny!”

The twins were a little more sensible in their approach. They took their captivity in their stride and took a more friendly approach. “Hi, guys. What’s going on?”

“Why don’t you tell us about Nebula Robes and Alchemy?” Ginny spoke with her altered voice. Ron looked freaked out by it.

“Oh, so you found out about the joke shop,” said Fred. “We were going to tell you...”

“That was no joke shop. Joke shops don’t sell Love potions to brothel Madame’s -” On the left wall she made a Page appear with Madame Margaretha being seen to by Aimée. “- or sell spell resistant clothing to Death Eaters!” On the right wall appeared another Page, one with Squabs taking the Order from Lucius Malfoy for the spell-resistance clothing.

“We would never have fulfilled that Order once we knew who it was for!” George exclaimed. Ginny reversed the video until Lucius and Draco Malfoy were just stepping in and they all heard Lucius Malfoy say ‘ _My_ \- _associate_ \- _is very pleased by your product_ ’, as he gestured clearly to the clothes racks. She played it three times.

“ _You_ \- _already_ \- _have!_ ”

Seeing their guilt playing in front of them spurred the brothers to make all sorts of excuses. They went wild with them, making up one after the other, sometimes not even making sense. They’d done no harm. The twins declared they had the right to still have their joke shop, and it was a joke shop they swore. They’d only used their own resources for it, no one else’s. They were only the suppliers, not the sellers. What right did anyone else on the crew have to tell them they couldn’t do what they were doing. They did it for their parents. They had no intention of keeping the money made for themselves. They hadn’t Conjured anything that couldn’t be countered [by the crew]. It was meant for their parents. A nice nest-egg to take care of them.

Ginny only let them talk for so long, especially after they brought up the money and their parents. “Shut up!” she roared. Her brothers blinked and it dawned on them one after the other who their interrogator was. She retracted her helmet. “Don’t pretend like this wasn’t just plain wish-fulfilment, that this wasn’t just plain greed. The three of you were each given seven bars of gold! That’s the same as the rest of us! They have a collective worth of thirty-two thousand, one hundred and twenty-three Galleons each. Ninety-six thousand, three hundred and sixty-nine Galleons in total between the three of you. One hundred and twenty-eight thousand, four hundred and ninety-two Galleons when my share is added. If having gold in your pocket is really the standard for having a good life, we were already made after we received the first two.”

“What right do you have to think you can tell us...” Ron started aggressively.

“Enough!” shouted Ginny in a tone that sent Ron stuttering into silence. “You’ve said enough.” Harry gave the agreed on signal and everyone walked out.

Stunned, none of the boys even thought to start protesting until the door was closing.

“We can’t just let them go, but we can’t keep them locked up indefinitely either,” Hannah pointed out.

“Why did it never cross out minds that we might need out own Azkaban?” asked Ernie.

Because we shouldn’t need one, Harry did not say.

“What I don’t understand is their thinking,” Angelina was crying. “I thought I knew Fred and George. We were talking, you know, about our future on the ship. What we wanted to do. It must have been only a handful of days before they opened the other shop.”

“Try not to think about the what-ifs and maybes too much, Angelina,” Cho warned. She sounded very much like she knew what she was talking about.

“I have a suggestion,” said Severus, “but you may not like it.”

“We’re willing to hear it,” Harry responded.

“As Miss Abbott said, you can’t let them go but you keep them here either. The latter is no option at all...”

“They know too much for us to just kick them out,” said Dean.

“Yeah, they were there right at the beginning,” added Lee.

“They know all our secrets. Locations, how to use the technology...” said Zach.

“What if they were made to forget?” Severus proposed.

“Memory Modification Charm!” said Katie.

“That’s a possibility,” said Harry. “But as I understand it, a powerful Witch or Wizard could undo them.”

“Yes, that’s true,” replied Severus. “Which is why I’m suggesting a complete mind-wipe - to before you found the ship.”

“No...” started Ginny.

“But Ginny...”

“Let me finish,” said Ginny. “It has to go back further. To before they learnt about the Room of Requirement. Don’t forget how we found the ship...”

“While experimenting with what the Room could do,” Lee recalled.

“Exactly.”

“Before we came together that day at the Hog’s Head Inn,” said Angelina, hugging herself tightly.

“That’s almost the entire year,” Hermione pointed out.

“Well, unless someone’s got a better idea,” said Harry. It pained him, but Ginny and Angelina both bought up good points. They would really have to go back that far to protect their secret.

“It’s the only option,” declared Anthony. “Making them sign a contract or make an Oath to silence them isn’t going to work.”

“I agreed. Let’s not forget who’s out there, and who’s going to be asking questions,” said Padma.

“Better to lose a year than have this discovered by the wrong people.” Parvati backed up her sister.

“None of us have the skill to do it but you, Lieutenant Snape. Are you willing to do this?” Harry enquired.

“I am,” Severus replied.

Harry looked at him, really looked at him and didn’t see their Potions Professor. In that fearsome teachers place was the man Dumbledore had been trying to get Harry to see. The man willing to put whatever he had to on the line to protect what needed protecting. Once that had been just the Wizarding World upon Earth. Now it was that and whatever they built amongst the stars. He and Ginny had made the right call recruiting him.

“Ginny?” Harry pulled her out of her thoughts, “If you’re ready,” he said. Ginny nodded. “Okay. All those in favour of a Memory Charm which will remove all memories of theirs to before our meeting at the Hog’s Head say ‘aye’.”

“Aye.”

“All those against say ‘nay’.”

There was silence.

Only a few minutes later when Harry returned to the Brig with Severus, Hermione and Ginny, he started learning everything he didn’t want to know about Memory Charms as well as Ron, Fred and George. The Charm needed to clear a person’s memory back as far as they had deemed necessary needed to be done while the person it was being done to was conscious - and aware. One-by-one the brothers were removed from the makeshift Brig to undergo the procedure. One-by-one they realised what was happening begged and pleaded for themselves -

For themselves. Not for each other - for themselves.

\- swearing to it all being a scheme of the others. How quick they were to turn against each other when it all went wrong. These three brothers who were supposed to be as close as close could be. Two of them inseparable from the womb, intended for the same woman.

“Where do we take them?” Hermione asked when it was all said and done.

“The Burrow? We could get in and out easily,” suggested Harry.

“Taking them to Order Headquarters won’t be an issue,” said Ginny.

“I know we’ve got the suits and stealth, and all that, but Ginny, that front door is awfully noisy,” Hermione pointed out.

“We can walk right through it without opening it,” said Ginny, looking to Harry. “If they wake up, just the three of them at the Burrow -”

“They won’t do the responsible thing,” Hermione conceded the point.

“True. And we should really check the place over for anything they might have left there,” Harry added. “Do you think you’re up to it, Tank? We wouldn’t want to grab anything you want left there by accident.”

“I want to come anyway. I need to get my things and I want to see this through,” Ginny replied “I - I feel like I need to write something - to explain - “

“You’re right,” said Hermione. “I was thinking the same thing. We shouldn’t just drop them off with no explanation. I’m not saying we have to go into any kind of detail...”

“I’ll do it,” said Harry. He was Captain after all. Such things as these were expected from Captains.

“Are you sure you’re up to this?” asked Severus.

“I could probably do with another dose of Pepper-Up.”

It took longer than he wanted to, to get the letter written with steam pouring out of his ears. Harry couldn’t help but remember how hilariously funny the three brothers had always found the affect. He was glad Ginny and Hermione had insisted that he should not have to write the letter alone.

Hermione rather cleverly invented a way so it would not be written in any identifiable hand. In the past few weeks she had been busy inventing whenever she had a free moment. Her latest creation was the PADD she’d had at the very top of her to-do list - a very different type to the ones Harry and Ginny had. She could write on it with a quill-like tool she called a stylus or type with either an on-screen or attachable Qwerty keyboard depending on her mood, and it came with as many text-style options as the Muggles had invented. It could record and photograph like Ginny’s Orbs and store large amounts of data like the PADD+ and it had a mini Conjurer which painted pictures and words on any surface.

And so an anonymous letter was written and addressed to Molly and Arthur Weasley, with a post-script included for the Order of the Phoenix to be delivered along with the boys.

As only four of them knew the location of the Order’s Headquarters and only three were both graduated from Hogwarts and capable of side-along Apparition, it was a bit of a trick getting there. Severus, Ms Edgecombe and Lee each apparated with one of the unconscious boys and either Ginny, Hermione or Harry.

Harry tentatively took the lead while Lee and Ms Edgecombe stayed out of sight in the park. He walked each pair through the door with his phasing-device. Down the hallway they could hear the meeting was still on-going, or rather had started up again after Neville’s letter and the failure to get any answers in Diagon Alley.

No stair or floorboard squeaked beneath their feet.

“Wait!” gasped Ginny, stopping Harry from putting Ron down at the last moment.

“What is it?”

“Once they’re out from under the Cloak’s Moody might see. And I’ve only got one of these,” Ginny held up the security device. “I’ve only ever done one room at a time.”

“Do you think you can block of this floor and the next,” asked Hermione.

“I think so, but we’ll be using a lot more power and it’s been in use for hours already today. I don’t know how much is left. We’ll likely have a limited amount of time to search.” Ginny got it set up at the top of the stairs, only covering as much space as was absolutely necessary.

They decided to leave the boys altogether in what had been Harry and Ron’s room rather than lugging the twins up another flight of stairs. In Ron’s trunk they found more damning evidence. A couple of weeks’ worth of Daily Prophets with advertisements for employees and seeking work ads circled. There were numerous correspondences from prospective employees, dating from before the beginning of the summer. Buford Squabs was only the tip of the iceberg in disreputable middlemen the boys had picked out. Extra robes and clothes they found proved to be samples of the products they were selling rather than for their own wear.

They found more in the twins’ room. Notes made by them were more carefully concealed and included their future plans for the ship. There were designs to add jewellery to the WonderWitch line but instead of diamonds or rubies, they’d have disguised Cloaks and shields. There were also theories on how to make the armour, covering all grades, and the Environmental suits saleable to the masses.

The coup de grâce finally was their plans to create and export their own Conjuring table as soon as the D.S.S. Enterprise was completed.

Harry was left feeling drained, utterly hollowed out by the time they cleared out everything. He could not fathom why they’d done it other than greed, but could they really be so shallow? Or so careless? There was evidence they had not bothered to check on who Squabs had been selling to.

Harry barely walked out of the house under his own power. The letter was dropped rather than left to be found, on the stairs beneath Mrs Black’s portrait.

It would have been nice if he could have taken a few days to process what had happened but Harry had no such luck as he slept away the rest of the day but for being woken up for dinner and another Pepper-Up.

From the next morning things were all go. They ate breakfast together with an atmosphere hanging over their heads that had all the solemnity of a wake. To one side Katie and Alicia comforted Angelina who softly wept, mourning the loss of her boyfriends. Harry tried not to hear it when Angelina spoke of the future plans she, Fred and George had made together that would now never come to pass.

Harry spent much of that day on shop security and going over Ginny’s intel gathering. As a ‘get well soon’ present, Hermione had Conjured Harry the PADD and stylus she’d designed which made Harry’s work all the more easier. Soon they not only had Orbs up and down the lengths of Diagon Alley but Horizont Alley, Carkett Market and Knockturn Alley, as well as one in the main entrance of Gringotts and no further lest the Goblins divined its presence, and with input and aid from those who had family and acquaintances in the Ministry, Orbs were placed in key positions throughout. Together with Ginny and Severus contributing, Hermione and Lee put together a word-recognition program to send alerts to Harry’s PADD in order to streamline the intel gathering process. No one wanted to be watching their very many cameras all twenty-four/seven. But still it did need to be done.

A great deal had happened after they’d dropped off the boys the day before. While reviewing the footage Harry learnt that Moody had caught sight of the boys about half-a-minute after the letter had been dropped. Harry watched as Mrs Weasley had bolted upstairs faster than Harry thought her capable of, followed by what appeared to be the entirety of the Order. Molly Weasley was beside herself for several long minutes, no one able to get a word in edgewise until Ron finally lost his temper and yelled very loudly, "What the hell is going on?"

No one had any idea what to make of it when the boys claimed their last memories were of only being at Hogwarts a few short weeks for their fifth and seventh years respectively.

The letter remained unnoticed until it had been settled the boys should be taken to St Mungo's. Tonks stepped on it, lost her balance and bounced down the last few steps on her rump. So many feet had stepped on it on their ways up and down whoever it had been addressed to was no longer legible.

"Punished?" shrieked Mrs Weasley, clutching her youngest son close much to his protest. "Someone stole the last year of my sons’ lives from them! They should be the ones being punished."

"' _We know Mrs Weasley especially will be upset_ '," Remus read.

"Yes, I am!"

"... _the very same spell-resistant clothing given by us to the Order for your protection, was sold by Fred, George and Ron in a secondary location they kept secret from the rest of us. This location was in Knockturn Alley. It was shut down immediately after we discovered it and discovered none-other than Lucius Malfoy in company with his son Draco making a large order for the protective clothing on behalf of an ' **associate** '. Needless to say his ' **associate** ' could only be one person_."

Mrs Weasley spluttered a number of denials.

" _It was during this time in the shop where we learnt about the Lestrange's escape from Azkaban_..."

"So that's how Miss Weasley knew to warn young Longbottom," said Kingsley Shacklebolt.

"What? Ginny did this to us?" cried Ron.

The twins laughed in disbelief. "This has got to be a joke. Are you all in on some prank with Ginny?" Fred accused them while trying to shrug off his mother's hold.

"Fred, none of this is a joke. Ginny's involved with something. The three of you were too," said Bill.

"... _numerous articles, seventy-two that we know of_ -," Remus continued listing the types, "- _are now out amongst the general population along with_ -" Remus read the list of Weasley Wizard Wheezes products. Fred and George squirmed. " _Keep the twins from restarting their shop. We've seized all their notes, but that won't be enough to stop them. While they successfully kept their identities a secret when selling to the Knockturn Alley crowd through a middleman, there's a real risk that the wrong sort will discover it was them if they do go back into business. The Weasley Wizard Wheezes products sold nearly as well as the clothing in the week their Knockturn Alley shop was open_...’"

"This just proves it! I told you! I told you your experiments and your ideas of going into business for yourselves would only lead to trouble," Mrs Weasley cried hysterically. "You're going to work at the Ministry with your father or Gringotts with your brother..."

"No!" the twins protested.

"I can't believe you guys had a store in Knockturn Alley," Ron looked at his brothers in awe.

“What else does it say, Remus?” Dumbledore enquired.

“That they’ll spare us the details of what happened when the boys were questioned…”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” yelped Ron.

No one wanted to answer that question so nobody did to Ron’s annoyance.

Remus continued. “They ask it not to be held against the boys as they won’t ever remember what happened, that it’s not their intention to make pariah’s out of them...”

“But why?” cried Molly. “Why take a whole year of their lives away?”

Harry placed the PADD down trying not to focus on Mrs Weasley’s tears or Mr Weasley’s silent distress as the playback continued. He directed the hoverchair over to the window of his office to take in the view of Neptune and the ever expanding D.S.S. Enterprise as the sounds rather than voices now, continued to speak.

Though the energy barrier between him and outer space had no reflective surface Harry could see the faces of his former best friend and his twin brothers reflected. The horror dawning on them as months were taken away, never to be regained. All the things they’d done, the good and the bad ripped from them.

What was it even going to be like for them, going forward? Harry hadn’t really considered it before they’d made the decision. They’d been too concerned with other things.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, he heard someone say the brothers should return to Hogwarts and do the year over.

They would return at summers end to discover all their friends were gone. Lee who had practically been the twins’ triplet. Harry and Hermione who had been inseparable from Ron since early in their first year except for a little time in their fourth during the mess that was the Goblet of Fire, which was more recent for Ron now. They would also return to everyone else wondering, even asking questions about what had happened. Harry knew all too well what the Hogwarts rumour mill was like -

It was a cruel thing he’d allowed to be done to Ron, Fred and George, there was no denying it. Every time he closed his eyes for the rest of his life Harry was sure he would see their faces, he was certain but they had left him and the rest of the crew with no choice. The future of their people needed to be put ahead of even his friendship. As stupid and unforgivable their betrayal was, Harry thought he never forgive himself. Harry felt he’d definitely never be forgiven once they found out what had happened. They’d call it more horrible than what they’d done, but they weren’t right. Harry wasn’t going to fool himself into believing what they were one day bound to say when all this was out in the open.

\- or perhaps it wouldn’t be that long. They were only halfway through the summer. Harry’s birthday was days away. Ron would want to send a letter, a birthday greeting. How would they suffer when they discovered their whole lives were irreparably changed with no explanation? It hadn’t really been discussed but it was pretty much a given that they weren’t going back at summer’s end.

These past few days more than any had changed their lives and changed the course of their plans. Everything was happening now and happening fast. Perhaps too fast and would they even be able to keep up? There were so many things to do and so few of them. Even despite the advancement of the technology at their disposal, and Thor’s kind act of translating the vast database to English, saving them the time of having to translate, everything would still take time. Still be a slave to the whims of the Wizarding World.

A few days later and past midnight on Earth, the crew had shed their armour and spacesuits in favour of their fashionistas new lines of work, inspired by the fashion of the Star Trek television series. Harry had Conjured a skant which has made its initial appearance in ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’, in the command red and black with the appropriate pips to mark him as a Captain.

The Requirement crew in its entirety returned to the ship, via the Knight Bus (while one reason was they wanted to avoid questioning by the Order, the truth was they never should have left in the first place) in the wee hours of 29 July. Less than a day later they were gathered together in their favourite room on the ship, the Bridge, to see Neville’s birthday out and Harry's in with a party. Ms Edgecombe had gone all out with treats. There was everything from the entire range of sweets on offer at Honeydukes to every flavour available at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour.

But it wasn’t all sweets.

There were Pumpkin Pasties, sliced roast beef on Yorkshire pudding topped with mashed potatoes and gravy, Hog Sausages in blankets, Herb and Garlic Kettle Chips and a stack of pizzas ordered from Muggle shops. For many it was their first taste of Muggle food, so she provided soft drinks and garlic bread too but there was also Butterbeer, Pumpkin Juice and for those of age, at least at first, there was Firewhiskey.

“Who wants a Pumpkin Mimosa?” Ginny asked loudly.

“What’s a Pumpkin Mimosa?” Katie responded.

“A little bit of Firewhiskey and a whole lot of Pumpkin Juice. Good to drink hot or cold,” said Ginny, raising her rather full cup.

By some miracle, she managed not to spill a drop.

“Oh! Yes please!” said Angelina eagerly. Katie and Alicia voiced their support.

“I’m not sure that’s...” Severus started.

Harry snickered when Ginny patted Severus on the arm, “I wasn’t asking for opinions, Lieutenant,” Ginny said gently, pulling rank. “I was asking who wanted one. A splash of Firewhiskey won’t hurt anyone.” Katie, Angelica and Alicia brought the glasses, juice and Firewhiskey over.

Severus gave Harry a look, like ‘aren’t you going to put a stop to this?’. Harry smirked, shrugged and set his glass on the arm of his hoverchair (he hardly felt like he needed to be in it any more but the crew insisted) which had suddenly been turned into a mini-bar.

“Is it anything like the Muggle Mimosa? With Champagne and orange juice?” asked Hermione. “I had one of those on the plane the last time we went to France.”

“No idea. I’ve never had that kind,” said Ginny. “You get the Firewhiskey burn before the pumpkin juice cools it, if you have it cold, which is the version I’ll be making.”

“Go on then, Commander, I’ll have one,” said Lee, who’d already been into the Firewhiskey a bit. One-by-one the others asked to try one too, until everyone had one in hand. It proved a little too popular and some were onto their second, even third by the time others had got around to having their first one.

“So, Lieutenant?” Harry asked Severus after he had tried his.

“So, what - Captain?”

“What do you think of the Pumpkin Mimosa?” asked Harry, raising his one glass.

“Am I allowed to express my opinion now, Captain?” Severus didn’t even try to conceal his smirk behind his glass.

Harry rolled his eyes. “Yes, Lieutenant.”

“Not too bad, but I prefer my Firewhiskey straight.”

“Ha! Figured you’d say that,” Ginny said a little louder than she intended.

“You’re drunk,” Severus accused him half-heartedly. “Don’t think I didn’t see you sneak more Whiskey.”

She had. Harry had seen her do it too.

Ginny snorted, “I’ve been drinking Firewhiskey straight since I was twelve. A few Mimosa’s hasn’t even given me a tingle in my pinky tips - though I think a few others are well beyond that.”

Dean, Seamus and Neville had declared themselves the new resident twins (admittedly they had had a few mimosas and lost their ability to count), much to the happiness and tears of Lee before they moved to the furthest corner of the room and started whispering and giggling like they were up to something. Katie and Alicia merciless teased Angelina about when she’d start dating the three, which had Angelina flushed and giggling into her cup.

Ernie and Terry were providing entertainment with a very dirty ditty danced to with a rather sloppy jig when Ernie pulled out his wand. Barely a spark had issued from it before it flew through the air to Ginny’s hand.

Harry watched her take a second to give Severus a look as if to say ‘drunk, am I?’ before she said, “Alright! As Chief Security Officer I need everyone to hand over their wands in to me.”

Harry handed his over but there was at least one person who didn’t care for Harry’s attempt at being a good role model.

“Aw, come on!” protested her ex-boyfriend, Michael. “We’re not all drunk.”

“And I’m not willing to take any risks,” said Ginny.

“On that note, everyone hand over their helmets too. I don’t want anyone trying to spacewalk either,” Harry added.

“Oh! Now that’s an idea!” said Seamus with a grin.

“Now!” “That's an order.” Harry and Ginny spoke over top of one another.

Harry added his own helmet beside his wand. Ms Edgecombe followed the order next and give over her wand and after Severus followed suit with wand and helmet, everyone came to hand theirs in. It took a bit of invention but they got the bulky helmets tied up into a blanket which dragged behind Harry’s chair as he took the older style helmets to be demolecularised. As a way to compromise and get everyone to agree to it, Harry offered Ginny’s helmet upgrade as a bribe to get the more stubborn ones to follow orders. When he was leaving Zach had been remarking to a still a little put-out Seamus when they had their new helmets and they could still go. Harry had been half-tempted to call back they wouldn’t get their new helmets until the cool-down after he was certain everyone was sober.

Then he heard Ginny say exactly that. He almost ran the hoverchair into the wall, laughing.

When he had spotted the opportunity, Harry had slipped a couple of unopened bottles of Firewhiskey into the hoverchair’s storage compartment alongside a bowl of Kettle Chips. They were bound for his secret stasis box until Ginny’s own birthday came around. It was just a feeling, but the way everything was going, it felt like the most he’d be able to offer his second-in-command when her birthday came. The future felt like it was soon to become an even busier time for them than they’d had already.

Harry hoped he was wrong, but better to be prepared than not. Ginny really loved Ms Edgecombe’s kettle chips. They were likely the reason she wasn’t as drunk as she should have been. Ginny had eaten a lot of them tonight.

Helmets demolecularised, blanket and all, Harry went to his office to secure everyone’s wands. He was headed back out the door to the party when his eye was caught by a small package.

It quickly became clear who had left it there by the quality of the wrapping. It was from the twins. The folded square of parchment beneath it confirmed this.

‘ _Harry,_

_Left this on your desk ‘cause we hope you’ll be back on the ship by your birthday. Charmed to appear on the day._

_Surprise!_

_Remember that really wotcher idea you had?’_

Harry had to think about it for a moment, then he recalled it. They’d been talking about bloodlines and how some people, Tonks and the Black family being the main subjects, were born with an extra ability, and others were not.

_‘Well, you were wrong. It wasn't impossible, you just needed to think outside the box._

_Weasley Wizard Wheezes is proud to present 'Inner Magic Drops'._

_The ships database was just full of stuff and we used some of our newfound knowledge to create them. They switch on those jeans (?) thingies Hermione talked about. Being your great grandmother was a Black, maybe you’ll end up a Metmorphmagus too! Won’t last long, only as long as the drop lasts so maybe fifteen minutes or so._

_Have fun! Make Mischief!_

_Can't wait to see the results!_

_Fred and George_

_P.S. Left it on your desk cause if we bought it to the house Mum might destroy it like the Ears. Call us once you've read this!_

"What you got there?" asked Clarissa upon his return.

Cliques appeared to have formed under the watchful gaze of the most senior of the adults present while Harry had been away. PADD's were in many hands. One group looked to be having a rousing debate. Judging by its members it likely had to be something Research and Development related. The fashionistas were giggling up a storm and others had attached themselves to the new ‘twins’ as they held Court.

"Fred and George left me something for my birthday."

"What is it?" asked Severus suspiciously.

"They call them Inner Magic Drops," said Harry. "It came out of something I said after last summer after meeting Tonks. It was just a passing thought but it turns out it gave Fred and George the idea to make an edible that temporarily unlocks an ability that might run in the family, like Tonks abilities as a Metamorphmagus. I think they just wanted to find out if I have the ability too, because I have an ancestor who was a Black."

He handed Severus the letter.

"Interesting. I'll have a look through their notes when I have the chance," said Severus.

"Will you try it?" asked Clarissa, reading it over Severus’ shoulder.

"Should I?" Harry wondered aloud. He had been considering it on his journey back but that had been along the lines of had Fred and George been selling them in their Knockturn Alley shop. It hadn't crossed his mind to actually try it out.

Clarissa shrugged. "Might be a bit of fun. It’s only temporary. Fifteen minutes."

Both looked to Severus.

"Unless I see their notes, I can't tell you whether it's safe or not," he supplied. "I'll just say this: do you think you can trust it, knowing who made it?"

Severus had a good point yet despite all the twins' tricks, they'd never really give anyone something they hadn't already tested numerous times on themselves. Nothing went out to others to try until Fred and George were certain that it would work as intended.

Then again, the intention behind it mattered to.

So he might suddenly have Metamorphmagic abilities after taking it. That didn't sound too dramatic. More like useful actually.

Of course it wasn’t that simple, not with the twins behind it. Almost as soon as its elderberry flavour hit his tongue he started to transform. He felt it, all of it. Bones, muscles and organs shifting quickly. As the pain started to ease Harry dragged him out of his chair, arms wrapped around his abdomen. He took one step, a misstep and his legs twisted and gave out, sending him plummeting to the ground, his brow catching the corner of a console.

Harry’s brain hardly registered the pain before the world went white.

And woke up feeling more disorientated than he had when first stepping out into the vastness of the void on his first spacewalk. Harry found he was in a room it took him a moment to identify as the Medical Bay. The second thing he recognised was his head, as suddenly as it had flared with pain, felt fine.

The frantic voices of the crew echoed from his comm stone.

Once Hermione knew Harry was safe, she started babbling an explanation for what had happened with Lee, Severus, Clarissa and even Dean adding their own thoughts here and there, while Harry slowly made his way back up to the Bridge, hoping that the strangeness the Inner Magic Drop had caused to his body would soon be gone.

Harry had accidentally discovered the ship had an emergency medical response program.

And when he met a number of the crew on his way back onto the Bridge, Harry found out he had another first to his name - the first transporter accident.

Severus and Clarissa paled and stalled in their rush when he came into sight back but it wasn’t until Clarissa had held out the remnants of the Inner Magic Drop that Harry understood why.

He didn’t have the drop in his mouth and hadn’t changed back. Internally, everything still felt rearranged.

When he had fallen, the drop had fallen from his mouth. Several minutes had elapsed between Harry being beamed away and his answering.

The drop should have worn off - if not while he had been unconscious, then at least in the several minutes it took for him to walk back.

It hadn’t.

The explanation was as simple as it was complex - the emergency medical transport hadn’t known Harry had been under the influence of transformative magic when it had been triggered by his head injury. It had taken Harry as he was in that moment, broken him down into him most basic elements to move him to the medical bay in the quickest, most efficient manner it knew to get his injury fixed expediently and when it had put him back together again, it had been in the same form it had gathered him. Just like it had done with all the Hogwarts library books, and the Captain’s Firebolt and Invisibility Cloak. It had no concept of magic and the magic that should have been there, wasn’t.

"My wand, I need my wand," gasped Harry, his next step faltering Severus and Ginny caught him before he could fall a second time. "My office. It's in my office. Please."

His head reeled worse than any concussion might have caused. Was he a Squib now?

It seemed to take forever and not time at all until they burst into Harry's office. Ginny moved ahead of them to open the safe as she was the only other person with access to it.

"Lowest tray, right side," Harry directed her as Severus and Hermione helped him to sit down.

Everyone else huddled around the walls watching and waiting in anticipation.

"Accio..!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unbeta'd. All mistakes are my own.


	6. Chapter Six

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karma strikes. Magic ensues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, thank you to esama. It's been a pleasure and a privilege <3

Harry summoned his PADD to him for the third time that day. It was unnecessary, he was only a few steps from is desk but since his accidental transformation he indulged, joyous that he had not been rendered a squib. That he could still use magic had lent credence to the theory that magic existed in their very DNA. That's why it remained with him, yet could not be recreated on anything they conjured.

No one else was quite ready however to test that theory. While certain members of the crew had been excited about finding out the ship had the ability to teleport matter, putting themselves through it was quite another thing altogether.

He tried not to think about the weird effect the drop had had on him which the transporter accident had made permanent. So far, the crew had only noticed that his facial features were a little softer, so he left it at that.

Things had been all go since, which helped him put it aside. Innovation was the crew’s middle name and the party, despite its sudden unexpected interruption had been where many innovative ideas had formed or been expressed.

With a good portion of the crew devoted to its development there was a new suit to be tested within a few days, based on a suit of armour created by a fictional Muggle billionaire. It married the spacesuit, armour and hoverboards abilities into one and added a whole list more - the brainchild of Lee Jordan and Dean Thomas. And with it a new armour variation because despite the new suit having plenty of its own, there was no such thing as too much in the opinion of many.

Just as strong, if not stronger than Ginny’s upgraded armour design, it was far less obvious, looking more like a padded, tailored overall than armour. They had added two new weapons to their armoury; lightsabers - a hilt with a retractable clear blade that could light up any colour its wielder wanted and could cut through a long list of things, and retractable staff. Harry conjured himself one of each. As they were less obvious and hardly identifiable as anything Harry kept his lightsaber and staff sheathed in view and placed particle magnum Ginny had now trained him to use to a sleek backpack that also housed their second most powerful battery yet alongside a kit of extra tech. Harry had changed to black with the suit and a slightly darker than Ravenclaw blue for his armour overall.

Harry still couldn’t convince the crew to let him do it, so once again Ginny went out to test out the suits capabilities in space being she was the most experienced. The only one who could be said to have genuine experience. Moving in the void wasn’t like walking on the surface of the ship.

While her first spacewalk had been thrilling to watch, there were no words to express the sheer power and agility of the aptly named Powersuit. It took Ginny from Requirement to Enterprise, which had a gap between them a little wider than the diameter of the Earth, in the space of a heartbeat. It was not only theoretically possible to fly at hypersonic speeds in atmosphere, but fly fast enough to leave the atmosphere. With the addition of the backpack battery, it was hypothetically possible to travel the billions of miles separating Earth and Neptune in about half-an-Earth-day.

Thoughts of making plans for testing out the latter two was interrupted by an alert from his PADD.

Harry watched as Dolores Umbridge and Cornelius Fudge walked up the corridor of level nine, away from the Department of Mysteries in company with two Unspeakables, none of whom were aware of the cloaked Snitch probe firming on their trail. While it was somewhat larger than its namesake, it was just as fast and manoeuvrable and far more functional than the previous devices Ginny had in use elsewhere. It could hear very, very well. Not a word spoken between the four was missed.

What Harry was hearing was disturbing to say the least.

As he listened, it seemed no small wonder Umbridge thought there was something special between her and Fudge. They were one hell of a team.

Pity their team work was to spread pure lies and propaganda. Not to mention the manipulation on show.

Harry had to wonder if the two Unspeakables realised what Fudge and Umbridge were doing to them, flattering them with words of confidence while dragging the names of highly-respected members of the Ministry through the mud. Harry watched the men go from trying not to preen too obviously when receiving compliments to being wholeheartedly concerned when Fudge and Umbridge confided in the men their doubts about Scrimgeour and Madam Bones' loyalties.

Scrimgeour, they said with confidence and assurance, as though they could easily bring forth the evidence to back it up, had undone all of Umbridge’s good work in modernising Hogwarts in favour of propagating Dumbledore's old ways.

No sooner had he been sent to replace her, Scrimgeour had started filling the children's heads with useless knowledge and refusing to teach a thing from Ministry's so thoughtfully and skilfully crafted textbooks that were meant offer the children, those very people who were the future of this Wizarding World, only the very best in knowledge and learning.

Scrimgeour encouraged, Umbridge added, duelling between students - and not under proper adult supervision. Children were allowed to duel in the halls, she said, so Dumbledore could learn who would be best to join his ranks. Dumbledore wanted only the best, brightest and strongest for himself and to leave the rest for the Ministry to undermine the _oh so Noble_ institution.

As for Madam Bones, her niece, to whom she was primary guardian, was known to consort with Harry Potter and Umbridge confirmed to them, sounding so very genuinely sorrowful, that the girls head was full of Dumbledore lies, through ‘young Potter’. Umbridge sadly added that she'd heard things said by poor, ill-informed young Susan repeated by the Aunt. Madam Bones was not the motherly sort at all and the girl was allowed to run wild and often was not disciplined.

Harry wanted to throw Umbridge out of an airlock.

Then it got worse.

As if tainting the reputations of those two wasn't enough, Fudge and Umbridge weren't afraid to go further when one of the Unspeakables asked about what had been reported about Umbridge in the papers. Harry nearly threw his PADD against the nearest wall in rage as he listened to the tales they spun together. Somehow they had twisted the thing to shine a bad light on not only Ginny but the whole Weasley family, excluding Percy.

"No offence, Miss Umbridge, but those stories in the papers a while back..." one of the men said uneasily.

"Ah, yes - _ahem_ \- my _manhandling_ of a school girl," Umbridge tittered. "I'm grateful that you've not shied away from asking," she added, sugar-sweet and flattering. "Tell me, do you know the name of the - _ahem_ \- so-called initial _victim_ of my wickedness?" Umbridge asked coolly.

Fudge shifted his stance ever so subtly to make a show of ' _taking her side_ ' whatever then mens response.

Both Unspeakables answered that they did not know any more than what had been reported in the newspapers and magazines.

"Ginny Weasley, gentlemen," Umbridge laughed.

"The daughter of Arthur Weasley," Fudge added. "The Weasley's, and also the Prewett's to whom his wife belongs, were and are well-known to be staunch supporters of Dumbledore. Not to mention Harry Potter is close friends with the younger children - he's practically the eighth child of the family."

Umbridge continued shamelessly, "I openly admit I laid hands on the girl, but gentlemen, if you had any idea the kind of behaviour I was forced to deal with -" Umbridge paused, sighed and slumped her shoulders looking so very defeated.

Fudge patted her on the shoulder, giving the Unspeakables a look that said, ' _see how she still suffers_ '.

"Every day the girl, after her father’s accident - he's Muggle-obsessed, you know, was very seriously injured by something Muggle. And the children were quick to use it to gain sympathy from peers and teachers - but I digress. It wasn't so bad in the cooler months but come the warmer weather it was plainly obvious she was dressing in a manner both against school rules and against good taste and - _ahem_ \- that day, I just had enough, so I called her to the front of the class with the intention to make her answer to her peers about it - only she refused to obey. I won't go about all the unpleasantness but I will say that she left me with no other choice but to physically move her. I touched her arms and her mid-back only. It's hardly my fault that..."

Umbridge left the sentence unfinished. Left it to the imaginations of the two men.

Harry clenched his jaw so hard he felt his teeth shift. Umbridge’s words, the way she left things unsaid so her unwary victims drew their own conclusions. The two men became even more uneasy, embarrassed to even be considering the thoughts Umbridge was manipulating them into considering.

The absolute bitch!

Harry made a mental note to ask about adding some sort of weapons system to the Snitch probe. He had half a mind to fly the probe at full speed, right at that very moment, straight at Umbridge’s stupid smug face.

But then, while Harry and the Unspeakables were off-kilter, Fudge and Umbridge dropped a massive filibuster firework on them by getting to the point of why they had approached the two men.

Previously they had stated they needed the men to go to Catchpole, a keyword that had triggered this alert.

Fudge and Umbridge wanted the men, these two very trustworthy men, to go to Catchpole and bring back Cedric Diggory who was in the custody of Muggle policemen in the small town.

"Have I not been saying for more than a year now that Potter and Dumbledore are lying about You-Know-Who's return? That young Cedric Diggory has been found alive and well just proves it.”

“We're entrusting the task of fetching young Diggory here, quietly, to the pair of you. We are certain once the poor, ill-used young man realises he has the Ministry's support - and forgiveness - he'll come clean about the whole charade. Merlin knows, he probably escaped from wherever they've been hiding him because he wants to see his father," Fudge told them confidently.

Umbridge solemnly nodding along in agreement.

Just as it seemed like they were done, Umbridge showed that she wasn't. What she said next brought bile to Harry’s mouth.

"Amos Diggory was not in on this charade, of that we have no doubts. His illness and hospitalisation are very real," Umbridge said softly, like she was confiding in them an intimate detail. "No doubt Dumbledore considers a man who worked for the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures of little import to his grand plans. Especially when he surely has our Head Auror and Head of the Department Magical Law Enforcement on side."

The blow was so low Harry half expected the men to physically crumple to the ground clutching themselves, but he didn't wait to find out anymore. He couldn't. If there was even the slightest chance that Cedric Diggory was alive, Harry could not allow him to become Fudge and Umbridge's pawn in this political intrigue they seemed set on playing out.

If this incredible event really had taken place Harry needed to let the others know.

He needed to tell Cho.

He needed to tell the crew.

Harry took a deep breath and realised that it was a very bad idea. Many of them had been severely emotionally impacted by Cedric's death. He’d end up with more voluntaries than he would know what to do with.

If Fudge and Umbridge were wrong, Harry would cause Cho and the crew pain unnecessarily.

So who could he ask?

The answer walked into Harry's office in the form of Severus Snape.

"What's wrong?" he asked almost immediately upon seeing Harry’s face.

Harry grabbed him by the arm, pulling him out of his office with him as he answered, "I'll tell you en-route." Harry triggered his helmet and cloak and took off running.

Severus caught up with him as they crossed paths with Ginny coming back from the shop. She wasn’t half startled by her arm being caught by an invisible force but she understood quickly enough and followed them back.

Harry caught both by the arms and phased them through the back wall into Border Alley before Ginny could catch the attention of Hermione behind her usual desk. Fewer people meant less noise when they Apparated.

"We need to Apparate to Catchpole, now,” said Harry.

"Why?" asked Severus.

“Did something happen at the Burrow? I didn’t see that anyone went home last I checked,” said Ginny.

"Fudge and Umbridge are sending two Unspeakables to Catchpole as we speak to collect..." Harry hesitated.

"To collect what?"

"To collect Cedric Diggory from the Muggle please-man place there," he finished quickly.

Their visors did nothing to conceal their expression of disbelief. Ginny was left speechless.

Severus not so much. "...Diggory is dead..."

"I know."

"I saw his body."

"I know you did. So did I. So did a lot of people."

"So did Fudge!" declared Severus.

"Fudge thinks it was all faked,” Harry huffed. “And that Cedric has escaped from wherever Dumbledore's been hiding him."

"No one has been hiding him anywhere. He's been dead. Dead and buried. Six feet under," Severus argued.

"You think I don't know that? I was there when Cedric died," Harry countered. "But Fudge believes it and so does Umbridge. They're having him brought to the Ministry at any moment now and we have to get to him first..."

"If it’s really him..." breathed Ginny.

"They'll fill his head full of lies or worse: mold him into what they want by any means necessary. We know first hand _she's_ capable of trying it..."

Border Alley was replaced by the small town of Catchpole moments later.

"Where do we need to go?"

Ginny took a second to orientate herself. "This way."

In the distance stood their destination on the opposite side of the intersection. Two not very subtly dressed men strolled towards it from the right. Harry's visor offered a zoomed-in view of them to one side.

From a certain point of view, the Unspeakables had done a passable job disguising themselves as Muggles. They'd gotten the business suits right but the colours, maroon and forest green, were all wrong.

Their shirts and ties were beyond wrong.

Maroon wore a salmon shirt with his royal purple and lavender striped tie.

Green was even worse with his daffodil yellow shirt and lemon, lime and orange printed tie.

No Muggle was going to take them seriously.

Sure enough, the two men were arguing with Muggles behind the front desk when Ginny, Harry and Severus phased through the front door.

"...telling you, we were sent by Scotland Yard. You've seen our identification. You've seen our papers. Now take us to him," one demanded.

"Where do you think they're keeping him?" asked Ginny.

"A cell, an office, an interview room...I really don't know," said Severus. "Po-Captain take left, I take right, Tank take centre?" he suggested.

It wasn't a big building but whoever had decided on design of the interior, they clearly had a thing for maze-like layouts. Harry supposed then that it would serve to make it harder for anyone to escape, or aid in one. Fortunately they weren't just any ordinary anyone's. Their helmets mapped out the path ahead while highlighting sources of heat and movement.

It took three attempts to hit the right button on his comm stone.

"Captain to Snape and Tank...I have eyes."

Cedric looked, if anything, like he'd flown into a pile of leaves and dirt during a Quidditch stunt gone wrong. They'd buried him in his Quidditch uniform. Harry had half expected to find him looking like one of Bill's mummies or one of terrifying Inferi as described by Fred and George, but Cedric just looked very pale, scared and confused - and very much alive.

The woman in uniform sat with him, holding his hand and offering words of comfort didn't look like she was dealing with a member of the undead.

"They're still arguing at the front desk but I don't think we have much time before they start using wands - Merlin... I was half-expecting some sort of new variant of the..." said Ginny.

"...Inferi? So was I," Harry admitted.

As they came closer, it was clear Cedric had been crying. Tear tracks had carved a path through the smudges of dirt on his cheeks. Inferi didn’t cry. Lost, scared boys, no matter what age they were, did.

"How is this even possible?" Ginny sounded like she was having a hard time keeping her breathing in check.

Harry couldn’t blame her. His heart had yet to stop racing.

"At the moment the best source of answers is Cedric," said Harry. "So how do we get him out of here?"

Severus pointed to a small red box on the wall.

"Fire alarm."

Almost as soon as Severus pulled the lever down a loud, almost ear-shattering ringing sound echoed throughout the building. The reaction of the Muggles was almost instantaneous. Some were a little fearful but most just got up and walked out, carrying an item or two with them. The uniform-wearing woman with Cedric took the young man's hand and led him out, assuring him that there was nothing to worry about.

"Where are they going?" asked Ginny.

"To an assembly point outside," said Severus.

The Unspeakables were nowhere to be seen as they passed through the entry area but they could hear them, shouting from across the road, still verbally duelling with the same people from before. A few others had joined in to offer support to their colleagues. It was only a matter of time before the Wizards would see Cedric.

Harry bumped into someone on purpose, who fell into two others, including the woman with Cedric. Another lost a hold off a stack of folders and papers filled the air.

With utmost haste, Harry placed a Cloak on Cedric, while wrapped a blanket of spell-resistant cloth around his shoulders and Severus slipped a pair of glasses on him which shared some functionality with the visor of their helmets, allowing him to see them.

Cedric’s eyes went wide at seeing Harry and his companions. Harry held a finger to his lips. While the Muggles could no longer see him, they'd so be able to hear him.

Once outside they quickly put distance between themselves and the Unspeakables.

"Where to?" asked Ginny.

"I'm tempted to say the Burrow, but if they track us..." said Harry.

"Best not too then..." said Severus. Through his helmet Harry heard his PADD chimed again, seeking for his attention.

What could it be now?

“I really wish I hadn’t left mine in my office now,” Ginny lamented.

Bertha Jorkins had come stumbling into the home of a magical family in Albania begging to use their floo to make an urgent call. She had contacted the Ministry to tell them Barty Crouch Senior had been keeping his son under the Imperius Curse in his home and that Peter Pettigrew was alive, in Albania and in service to You-Know-Who - two years too late.

As he watched, with Cedric by his side and Severus and Ginny keeping an eye out for the Unspeakables, Umbridge sicced Aurors on the poor woman calling her all sorts of horrible things and making the accusations left, right and centre.

"I know her," Cedric finally spoke. He sounded hoarse.

"She worked in the Ministry..."

Cedric was more than a little startled by Harry's technologically-altered voice.

"N-no. I-I mean that...I mean she came out-out of the wand after me, when you...when you duelled with...with You-Know-Who in the-in the graveyard," stuttered Cedric quietly, shivers wracking his body.

There it was, proof that this really was Cedric Diggory. What happened in the graveyard was known only to a few and understood by even fewer. But dear Merlin, that had happened after he had died. Did this mean people could remember what happened after they died? Ghosts certainly did.

Was it true for everyone?

"You - remember that, Mr Diggory?" Severus asked.

Before Cedric could answer the PADD chimed again.

"What now?"

Severus and Ginny, satisfied they had not been followed came to look over Harry's other shoulder. Word had gotten back to the Order about Cedric and Bertha Jorkins. News about Bertha getting out came as no surprise but Harry had thought Umbridge and Fudge had been keeping a tight lid on news regarding Cedric.

Apparently not.

Dumbledore was in the process of sending his old friend Elphias Doge to scout around Little Hangleton, specifically to the grave of a Muggle, Frank Bryce, one of five persons whose echoes had been drawn out of Lord Voldemort's wand during the Third Task of the Triwizard Tournament by Priori Incantatem, the Reverse Spell which had been triggered by their brother wands being pitted against one another. Dumbledore, when questioned, further elaborated that such an event had happened only a handful of times in history and always had consequences that always seemed to go against the laws of magic and nature.

This time the dead were returning.

Dumbledore ordered the rest of the Order present to follow him. They would be going to Godric's Hollow - to the graves of Lily and James Potter.

Harry didn't even need to ask. One moment they were in an alley between two shops in Catchpole, the next they were in Godric's Hollow, with the graveyard in which his parents were buried within sight. Nearby they heard the sound of others Apparating in. It was almost immediately followed by curses. Quite literal ones as hexes were cast.

There were Death Eaters in Godric's Hollow.

"I know where to go." Severus took the lead.

Harry pressed his wand into Cedric's hand. "Follow him. Stick close to Ginny. I'll watch our backs, Cedric," said Harry.

Sirius Black in his Animagus form was already digging swiftly away at James Potter's side of the joint grave.

"Bloody mongrel dog. Of course you'd only bother with him," Harry heard Severus sneer.

Black found himself thrown aside by an invisible force and barely got all four paws back beneath him when some several hundred pounds of dirt were thrown in his general direction.

Severus had already dropped into the crater he'd made and was making quick work of unscrewing the lid of one of the caskets when Ginny, Harry and Cedric caught up with him, and Remus caught up with Sirius.

Harry’s visor showed heat signatures inside both coffins. Both were thrashing about. The solid wood could not completely swallow up their cries for help. Harry had to wonder how Cedric had gotten out of his, but was hesitant to ask - and Harry didn't really know the answer.

Merlin, the people trapped inside those coffins were his parents! And they were alive! Harry clutched his magnum harder as he scanned for Death Eaters. They were still a distance away and occupied by what Harry guessed was the Order.

Sirius fell back when Lily, clearly expecting an attack, not a rescue, lashed out with a roar. Before Sirius could pick himself back up out of the dirt for a second time the scene was repeated when Remus finally got the lid off of James'. James threw himself out sideways and then back away from his friends pulling Lily along with him.

"Whoa, whoa! Prongs! Prongs! It's us! It's Moony and Padfoot! It's okay! You're safe!"

They looked no different than in the pictures last taken of them when Harry was around a year old. The passage of time had not touched Lily and James at all. If not for the difference in height and different coloured eyes James could have passed for being his own son. There had been no exaggeration there.

Flushed and sweating after being trapped in their coffins for who knew how long, there was no doubt they were two living people.

"Pad-Padfoot? Moony?" James stated his friends in disbelief. "You look awful!"

"Come off it, Prongs. You always did like to believe you were the best looking," Sirius laughed.

Harry had taken one step forward, ready to de-Cloak when Severus leaped forward, his spell-resistant robes and armour dissipating a rather vile coloured curse which had been set on a path towards the back of Lily's head.

"Potter's! Come out and play-ay." The sing-song voice belonged to none other than Bellatrix Lestrange.

She wasn't alone. Death Eater’s had broken through the Order’s defence. The laughter of several others echoed off of gravestones beside her own manic giggles.

Severus threw himself across the crater, bounded out the other side and started slinging curses at them.

Bellatrix yelped in pain.

"I just found some of our missing cloth," Severus growled through comms.

Severus, who had been thrown head-first into life aboard ship, had been training in their style of combat since day two and it showed. His spells came high, and from the right when he had already ducked low and moved to their left. Without the spell-resistant clothes they were kitted out in, they'd not have stood a chance against Severus.

"Someone's invisible. It's probably little Potty under his cloak! Cast at the source of those spells!" Bellatrix bellowed.

The Death Eaters were still gaining ground despite Severus’ strong defence.

“Stay with Cedric, Ginny,” Harry ordered.

“No, Captain. You should stay with him,” Ginny countered. “Next to Snape’s experience you're the next strongest fighter here. If they get through us, you’ve got a better chance than me.” Ginny didn’t wait for his response, leaping forward to join the fight.

Harry put Cedric behind him, between the Death Eaters and his parents, but did not attack.

Harry’s comm startled him. “Commander Granger to the Captain.”

"Captain here. Kinda in the middle of something but go ahead."

"Captain, have you been monitoring Order HQ?"

Oh, bloody hell. What else could have happened, thought Harry.

"Damn it if she isn't right, Sirius. We are definitely not alone," Remus said as he peeked around the gravestones to Harry’s right.

"No, I was monitoring elsewhere when something happened. I had to act quickly," he explained hastily. Harry paused to take a deep breath to try and calm his battlefield heart. "What have you heard?"

"Friends of yours?" asked James.

"Let's not wait to find out." Sirius pulled the head of a wizard made of brass from his pocket. "Compliments of Albus Dumbledore. A one-way ticket to the Order's new HQ. You're going to hate the place," he chuckled.

"Wait! They're invisible," declared Remus as he stayed Sirius' hand.

"Not me. Neville's parents contacted him,” Hermione answered. “Told him they had orders from Dumbledore to try to convince him to meet them somewhere with you so they could bring you into headquarters. They wouldn't say why though. Were you out acting on intel in a rush again?" Hermione sounded half-amused, half-frustrated. Harry knew the frustration wasn't aimed at him though. Well, not all of it.

"Yeah - I noticed. Nice of them to keep the bad guys distracted…" said Sirius.

"Harry has James' cloak, or have you forgotten?" Remus responded.

"Yes. I have Lieutenant Snape and Commander Tank with me," said Harry. "Commander - Hermione...something happened...it started in the Ministry...Hermione...something happened...”

"Who died?" There was no emotion in Hermione's voice.

"Harry…" said Lily distantly. Harry almost turned to look at her. "He - he survived You-Know-Who?"

"Well, currently bunch of Death Eaters Tank and Snape are hitting on red setting. I don’t even know how many," Harry shuddered. He hadn't thought about until this moment, he'd just been doing it; magnum’s put on kill and fired at his parents' attacker's ending who knew how many lives today. It made Harry feel sick and guilty and he knew he'd have to tell himself repeatedly that the only good Death Eater was a dead Death Eater.

"Please tell me you didn't run off into the middle of a Death Eater attack on the Ministry?" Hermione exclaimed.

"Yeah," said Sirius proudly. "Fifteen months old and kicked You-Know-Who's arse!"

"No. No,” He rushed to answer him reassuringly. “It wasn't on the Ministry...” Harry hesitated. How did he explain this? He wanted to break it to her gently but it didn't seem possible. The only thing he could think of was to be straightforward, this was after, not before. The circumstances were changed now. "Hermione, I'm going to send you some videos..." Harry whipped out his PADD and sent her the footage Umbridge and Fudge’s conversation with the Unspeakables deep in the bowels of the Ministry before sending it on to Hermione.

"No - at the graveyard when they duelled. Harry got away safe?" said Lily.

“Are you sending me intel in the middle of a battlefield?” she exclaimed.

“Just look at it, Hermione,” Harry retorted.

"How can you even know about that?" Harry couldn't see him but Remus sounded taken aback.

"You were investigating this claim?! Oh no, Harry! Did you run into a trap?" Hermione was freaking out.

"We were there," said James. "I don't know how or why…"

"No trap, Hermione. I’m literally shielding Cedric from curses as we speak. Snape and Ginny are in the thick of it and Sirius and Remus are close-by with my parents."

"I remember being pulled, dragged out of a small, dark space and there was a boy a bit older than Harry, an old man I think was a Muggle and another woman. Then James appeared," said Lily.

“Karma,” said Hermione quietly. “After what Dumbledore said about brother wands I did some research.” Of course she did. “You-Know-Who dared to pit his wand against its brother and now he pays the price. His last victims, the ones released by Priori Incantatem - all returned to life.”

"Bloody hell! That's what Harry said happened." Yes, it was. They remembered that night just like Cedric did.

"How…"

“Hermione, someone needs to tell Cho. She’s got no idea,” said Harry. “I wanted to - but I couldn’t. Not without knowing for certain. I know how much she grieved. And then it all just got Bludgered from there...” Harry said apologetically. “Just let her know. We’ll be there soon. Captain out.”

**Boom - boom - boom - boom!!!**

One of the Death Eaters had gotten smart. Rather than try and hit his invisible foes, he blasted the earth around Severus and sent Ginny flying back several feet almost on top of Harry and Cedric. From the sounds issuing through their internal comm, Ginny had trouble getting her breath back after it was knocked out of her.

In a strange scene of karma, dirt showered down on Severus and just for a moment before the self-cleaning suit could do its work, Severus' armoured form could be seen.

Before Harry could take her place, particle magnum to hand, Sirius threw himself into the fight much to Bellatrix's delight.

“Oh! My cousin’s here!” she giggled gleefully before she set about trying to hex him.

"Sirius, no! The portkey! Get back here," Remus bellowed.

"Bloody thoughtless idiot!"

Severus charged back onto the scene and tackled Sirius. The two men rolled down the crater ending up with Sirius falling half into James’ empty coffin.

"Get them out of here before his followers put them right back into their graves!" Severus roared. His voice, altered by his helmet, was terrifying. Even the Death Eaters were given to pause as it echoed through the graveyard.

Just as quickly as everyone had stopped, they started up again. Assuming there was an opening the Death Eaters charged forward at the same time Sirius threw himself away from Severus' invisible form crashing bodily into Lily and sending her tumbling aside.

Harry couldn't fire off enough blasts from both magnum and gem to take them down while protecting Cedric and a still winded Ginny. Harry’s wand was uncooperative in Cedric’s hand. Desperate, Harry reached into his backpack for something yet untested.

Severus swept Lily up just a moment before a Cruciatus Curse splattered uselessly against his armour. A moment later, she vanished as he extended the range of his Cloak to include her.

"I've got her! Go! Now!" his voice boomed again as Death Eaters bounced off of Harry’s miniature force field generator and tumbled into the grave side as the Marauders vanished. The force-field generator whined unhappily but held.

Enraged, Bellatrix and the few who had made it this far and were still standing, fired off curses to all four corners of the compass and everything in-between, seeking to hit someone, anyone, but their efforts were fruitless. Severus got himself and Lily past them and under the force field without getting hit again. Harry quickly got a pair of glasses on Lily so they could signal her to keep quiet.

Not one person who had ever commented that Harry had his mothers' eyes had exaggerated. The glasses, based on Harry's frames, made the likeness even more prominent. He was not so much a carbon copy of his father as some liked to believe.

There was something in her eyes that reminded Harry of the look Hermione got when she had a lot of questions and had little patience left to wait for an answer. Lily's frown looked like it had been passed on to Harry too. She had noticed that she could see Ginny's face, but Severus and Harry had altered their visors so she couldn't.

Reunion celebration had to wait until they were all somewhere significantly safer.

With Death Eaters now honing in on their location curses splattering uselessly on the force field, it was clear to all - it was time to go. Perhaps they could wear it down and break through, Harry didn't know and this was not the proper place to test the force field capabilities out.

"Can you stand, Tank?" asked Severus over the internal comm.

"Yeah...yes. No broken bones but I think a few ribs got bruised," said Ginny.

With Harry and Cedric's assistance, Ginny was able to get back on her feet. Lily tried to wiggle free but Severus would not release the form hold he had on her.

"Straight shot to the ship, Lieutenant?"

"Yes, Captain.”

"Is it safe to talk now?" Lily asked quietly.

"For now," Harry answered after checking up and down the alley.

Harry brought down his helmet once he was satisfied it was clear.

And Lily Evans-Potter realised she was looking at her son.

“Ha - Harry - H-Harry - baby.” She was drawn to him like a bee to honey.

Harry threw himself into her arms as soon as she was within reach.

“Oh Merlin, baby - you got so big!”

That was an understatement. There was rather a few years of growth between fifteen months and sixteen years, even if she had gotten a glimpse of him at fourteen.

They were all so caught up in the family reunion some were startled by Harry’s comm stone beeping.

Before he could answer it Ginny took the phase device from his arm and disappeared through the wall.

Cho was likely already waiting for Cedric on the other side.

“She’s going to be so happy to see you,” Harry said to Cedric over his mother’s shoulder.

More like ecstatic.

“Cho!” Cedric’s face lit up in a way the dirt could not conceal.

“C-Cedric.” Cho burst into tears as she fell into his arms.

“He’s the boy - from the graveyard. I remember him,” said Lily.

“I’m okay. You helped me escape. I got Cedric back to his dad just like he asked, and we found out who’d done it,” Harry reassured her. “So much has happened since then.”

“How long has it been?” Lily looked her son up and down for some sort of clue.

“The day I - the day of the Third Task was June 24, 1995,” said Cedric, clutching Cho close.

The ship's crew looked at each other. The way Cedric said it, the way Lily looked at Harry and the rest of them, it seemed they rather expected quite a lot of time had passed.

Was just over fourteen months within their expectations?

Harry had a feeling it wasn’t. He suspected their estimation was years, not a little more than a year.

“It’s August fifth, 1996,” Severus finally answered.

“But - but that’s barely more than a year!” Lily exclaimed. “You’re - you’re only sixteen?”

Harry nodded.

“But you were so small just a year ago. How did you grow so much?”

Harry laughed. “Good food, good company and lots of beauty sleep.”

“But not at Hogwarts,” Lily asked with some hesitation.

“I love Hogwarts. I have loved learning about magic,” said Harry, “but, we found something - out of this world - we found it because of magic. I’m - we - are far out of his reach there.”

“Hermione should have the papers ready Captain,” said Cho gently.

“Of course she does,” Harry chuckled. “We’re a crew - a team, and if you want, you’re welcome to join us,” he offered.

“Say yes,” Ginny said at the same time as Cho, in almost identical stage whispers.

Even Severus was humoured by it.

“Secret-keeper stuff?” asked Lily.

“No. It’s a trust thing,” said Harry. “And a vanity thing if what I’ve been able to get out of Hermione is true.”

“Vanity?” said Lily interestedly.

Oh, Lily and Hermione were definitely going to get along well, though Harry.

Not one minute later that thought began to prove prophetic.

Harry and Cho retrieved the glasses and blindfolded the new arrivals with no issues and good humour once they were spun around to disorientate them. They walked the pair through the old shop front a bit before taking the pair across to the new one, and Hermione’s office. Cedric and Lily took only long enough to read through the contract before they signed and the whole blindfolding and disorientation thing was repeated and they were guided onto the Requirement.

Like a Guard of Honour, the Crew lined the entrance way into the Requirement, their faces glowing with the genuine happiness they had felt too little over the summer so far.

“There’s other people?” Lily made to take off her blindfold. Harry gently stayed her hand, giving it a squeeze of assurance.

“It’s just the Crew, no one else. You’re safe. Both of you,” he said reassuringly. "And everyone here will see you kept safe from harm as much as is in their power too."

“Welcome aboard, Mrs Potter!” called Lavender.

“Cedric!”

“Is that Angelina Johnson?” The Witch in question squealed in delight at being recognised.

Cho nodded at first before realising with a little embarrassment that he couldn’t see her. “Yes.”

“We should take them to the window, like before. Best view there is.” Harry pointed at Severus, who rolled his eyes and did not at all go just a little pink in the cheeks.

Many agreed with more laughter and cheers.

“Make it a tradition, hey?” mused Ginny.

The suggestion was met with cheers.

“Are you actually hazing us? Harry!” Lily protested.

“It’s - yes, I suppose it was rather like being hazed,” said Severus quietly. "But it's hardly the worst."

“Your face,” Harry chuckled.

“Indeed.” Harry tried not to make it too obvious that he was pleased to see that his comment caused Severus’ blush to darken.

Somehow they all managed to position themselves so Cedric and Lily would have a clear view out the window while they all could get a good look at the pair as their blindfolds were removed.

Their reactions could not have been more different. Cedric was stunned, awed even, but confused, clearly not able to make heads or tails of what he was seeing beyond it being a breathtaking view. Being Pureblood, he had no concept to build on, but for what was taught in Astronomy class and that simply wasn’t enough by any stretch of the imagination to understand the sight he beheld.

Lily, like Severus before her, went to her knees almost immediately, brought to them by them sheer enormity of what she was seeing and by being able to understand its great significance. Harry had gleaned from the history lessons the Muggle-raised amongst the Crew had taught that his mother must have grown up right when the Space Race was happening during a period known as the Cold War.

“Oh my God! Oh Merlin! Harry!” She grabbed hold of his robe and dragged him down to the floor with her so she could hold onto him...for dear life.

Harry pointed attention towards the large blue jewel in the velvet darkness. “That’s Neptune-" then to its growing silver companion, "- and the soon-to-be-complete D.S.S. Enterprise, a space station and fuelling depot,” Harry told her. “And you are aboard a Starship, the D.S.S. Requirement.”

“D.S.S. means Defence Starship. We call ourselves the Defence Space Force because we started off as a D.A.D.A. tutor group,” Hermione elaborated.

Lily, utterly bewildered, asked, “But...how does a D.A.D.A. tutor group end up in space?!”

“I don’t understand,” said Cedric, looking to Cho, his countenance heavily marred by confusion.

Gently, Cho pulled him aside and began to fill him in. They were quickly joined by others, mainly Purebloods and his former Housemates wanting to assist in easing his transition and bettering his understanding. In a way, Harry thought, this was sort of a trial run for the near future.

The rest settled around Harry and his mother as the former began to tell her of their dreaded former D.A.D.A. teacher sent to Hogwarts by the Ministry to curb an imaginary rebellion which they only succeed in bringing into reality. To their surprise, Lily very easily remembered a Slytherin named Dolly Umbridge who was a few years behind of her. Little Dolly had been memorable because she had been nasty and bossy from day one and liked to point out all the Prefects faults. She had especially liked pointing out all the rule breaking of her peers to a certain Muggleborn Gryffindor Prefect to make said Prefect look like she was failing at her job.

For much of the retelling, Lily Evans-Potter was in awe. She laughed when Harry confessed how long it took him to realise the ship was really real and not some abstract work of magic; was horrified by Umbridge’s violent assault on Ginny and the darkness Umbridge had brought to the castle with her, disguised in shades of pink. Lily delighted in hearing they had recently made their own version of a lightsaber, having seen Star Wars with her parents in 1977 shortly before they died in a car crash. The thought of spacewalking terrified her and she was gobsmacked by the scale of it all.

Clarissa sympathised with her a great deal.

“You know Sev had the idea to get people into space with magic back in ‘69," she said out-of-the-blue.

Everyone in their grouping went silent, the sudden drop in noise quickly drew the attention of the others.

“What is it?” asked Cho.

“Sev?” said Harry. A few looked to the man in question but Lily, all her focus on Harry, did not notice.

“He was a boy I knew back home in Cokeworth. He was the only other person like me, with magic, that I knew before I got my Hogwarts letter. Him and his mother.”

Harry looked around quickly but did not find who he sort within his line of sight. As he seemed hesitate to look further afield, Ginny caught his eye and glanced over his shoulder - to where ‘Sev’ was lurking in the shadows.

“I had no idea,” said Harry. “How long before you got your letter did you know him?”

Lily grinned as she looked back out the window again to Neptune. “I remember it was right before the moon landing. Just a few weeks later we watched it together at my house. I remember we talked about it for ages after - about the application of magic in space flight and exploration. We dreamed big dreams in those years.” Lily slumped suddenly. “Then we got on the train, arrived at the castle and those dreams rather died on us. There was no place for them in the world we came to...” Lily sighed deeply. “I wonder what happened to him...”

Harry found himself just as guilty as the majority of the crew for bursting out suddenly in gales of laughter.

Fortunately, Lily didn’t take it the wrong way. “You all know him?” she half-asked, half-declared.

“No, no. Never met the guy,” Lee said airily, grinning like a fool and nodding his head theatrically.

“But how?” Lily exclaimed, turning her head left and right, looking for someone who would give her answers. “I mean, last I heard, he’d all but disappeared,” she added.

“Spy’s tend to do that,” said Harry, shrugging nonchalantly, face quite passive.

“Spy?!” Lily’s voice went up at last two octaves.

“For the Order of the Phoenix. Dumbledore’s man on the inside -” Harry revealed.

Lily’s reaction was no unlike the crew’s when they’d been told - awestruck.

“But - but then, how do you all know him?”

Hermione was forthcoming with the answer. “He was our Potions Professor and Head of Slytherin House until very recently,” she said matter-of-factly.

“Until recently? What happened?”

“We recruited him onto the crew,” Ginny added her two Knuts worth.

Lily jumped to her knees and scanned about the crew hastily, seeking out any face which might be familiar to her. She managed to overlook the still helmeted figure skulking in the shadows twice before her eyes properly landed on him.

“Sev?”

Harry and the rest of the crew seemed to hold their collective breath awaiting his response.

After what seemed like ages but was in reality little more than a few seconds, Severus Snape finally lowered his helmet.

Several people had to throw themselves aside in order not to be trampled in Lily’s haste to reach him.

Harry could have sworn he heard something like a sob leave Severus before he buried his face in Lily’s neck.

Lily was definitely crying. Severus took hold of her like he never had any intention of letting her go and Lily held onto him nearly the same.

“He knew your Aunt too,” Ginny whispered in Harry’s ear.

Harry could not look away to give her his attention. “What?”

Ginny didn’t seem to be bothered by it. Actually she sounded amused. “When we came to get you - your Aunt recognised him. Called him Sev too. And he called her Tuney.”

“Tuney?”

“Mhmm.”

And there it was. Harry suddenly knew more about his mother, her sister and their childhood than anyone had ever bothered to tell him before.

Because before now, his father, and Harry’s apparent likeness to his father had overwhelmed his life since Harry had entered the magical world.

The realisation hit Harry like a physical blow. As did the realisation that his mother was _alive_ and _here_ and he could change all that.

“Mum?”

Still clinging to Severus Snape for dear life, Lily extended one hand out for Harry to take.

Held firmly by his mother’s side, Harry felt another arm wrap around him. His heart leapt in his chest when he realised it was too long and too strong to be his mother’s.

It was Severus’.

Severus Snape was holding him. Lily, his mother was holding him.

Harry felt that all was right in the world.

Then someone’s comm stone beeped.

It was Neville’s.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unbeta'd. All mistakes are my own.
> 
> Coming Eventually (I hope): D.S.S. Atlantis
> 
> Thank you to my friends for putting up with me while I was writing this! Also sorry for making you put up with me XD
> 
> If you enjoyed this, please kudos and subscribe to the series so you don't miss out on the next story (I have started on it, I swear!)
> 
> Sorry about the cliffhanger '_'

**Author's Note:**

> Unbeta'd. All mistakes are my own.


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